What can I do to help my child with homework?  Read the following document to help.

 A Framework for Homework.pdf

Recently held a "Dove Self-Esteem" Workshop for mothers and daughters at BHE:

Developing a healthy sense of self-esteem is important for girls, especially when they reach adolescence. Girls need the freedom to explore all aspects of their abilities and not feel pressured into preconceived notions of what’s feminine. Here are some ways you can help your daughter:

• Encourage your daughter to think independently and consider her needs as much as others.
• Give your daughter the freedom to work toward goals she sets for herself.
• Recognize your daughter’s achievements, especially when she reaches goals.
• Encourage your daughter to express herself without passing judgment on her opinions.
• Talk about gender stereotypes in society – on television, in popular music, advertising, magazines – and encourage your daughter to think critically about how girls and women are portrayed.
• Learn about the contributions women have made to various fields. For example, if your daughter’s interested in science, find out more about the contributions of Canadian women scientists.
• Use inclusive language—like police officer, not policeman.
• Talk to your daughter about what she’s thinking and feeling.
• Make your daughter aware of negative influences such as discrimination, sexual harassment and violence against women.
• Encourage your daughter to take self-defense classes.
• Be a positive role model for your daughter.
• Encourage your daughter to have a diverse group of friends, including boys and girls.
• Introduce your daughter to books written by women and stories with strong female characters.

Help Your Child Have a Great Summer:

Get organized

• Have children start a collection - rocks, stamps, baseball cards, bottle caps, marbles. Arrange them in some order - in a box, by categories, by colour, or alphabetically, for example.
• Ask youngsters to organize photographs in an album by date or activity. Save newspaper or magazine photographs of favourite athletes or role models to create a scrapbook.
• Suggest that children swap paperbacks, comics, or magazines with extended family and friends. The local library might help organize a swap.

Develop a sense of responsibility

• Ask children to take charge of family recycling (get containers, wash the jars, stack the papers, etc.)
• Teach boys and girls how to take care of their clothes, sort and fold laundry, use the washer and dryer or help at the laundromat, sew on buttons, iron, polish shoes, etc.
• Have children plan all aspects of a party. They can help decide on the guests, phone or send invitations, plan the food, get the house ready, greet and introduce the guests, and clean up.

Bolster core learning skills

• Recommend that children keep a diary - a journal of their activities or the family's.
• Take time every day for the whole family to read by themselves or together. Even 10 or 15 minutes is fine.
• Introduce children to the library's summer reading program.
• Have children follow a favourite newspaper comic strip all summer.
• Have children write letters or send postcards to cousins, grandparents and friends.
• Review cash register receipts. Children can check them for accuracy when you're unloading groceries.
• Teach children to add up gas mileage.
• Hold a yard or garage sale. Allow children to set prices and make change.

Teach good citizenship

• Check the newspaper for volunteer activities. For example, you and your child could make a weekly visit to a nursing home.
• Visit the animal shelter, the fire station or a hospital to show children what happens at these places.

Understand history

• If possible, collect photographs of grandparents and great-grandparents. Have children write their names and birth dates on the back of the photos. Tell stories about the family.
• Discuss the meaning of holidays with children and find a special way to celebrate.
• If you take a trip, visit the historical sites along the way and save the information brochures.
• Check out library books and videos to reinforce new learning from a trip.
• Visit a cemetery and find the oldest stone. Read the inscription and talk about the past with your children.

Get close to nature

• Give children a garden plot in the yard, or a window box or planter on a balcony. Be sure the child has full responsibility for the plants.
• Read the daily newspaper's weather map. Let children figure out what the weather is where friends and relatives live.
• Camp out for a night on the balcony, in your yard, or at a provincial campground.

Source: National School Public Relations Association, It Starts on the Frontline/May 1995