Don't yell at your kids about homework, and other tips on homework and other education issues from new East Bay blogger

Just in time for back to school ...

Kerry Dickinson, a Danville mom, parent activisit, and former middle school, high school, and community college teacher, has started her East Bay Homework Blog, "a launching point for good launching point for thoughtful discussions about issues like: parenting, ADHD, standardized testing, teacher training, preserving childhood, curriculum, colleges, and student stress."

Dickinson says she herself started to rethink why schools give homework in 2007, and whether they could do it better, after seeing her own sons begin to dread to go to school. She did her homework on homework, and she and a friend approached the San Ramon Valley Unified School District about its homework policy, and jumpstarted a process in which the district formed a 19-member task force to devise a new homework policy. Her efforts were profiled in a September 2008 Diablo magazine feature, Homework: How Much is Too Much?"

"My main interest for this blog is to promote healthy, well-balanced children who love to learn," she writes in her profile. "Too often I see schools focusing on making sure children follow directions and memorize facts instead of fostering creative, curious, innovative critical thinkers. By re-evaluating accepted homework practices, we can begin to make real changes in education. We have to start somewhere."

Here are some of her other tips for starting the school year off right, which you can read in more detail at the East Bay Homework Blog.

-- Don’t over schedule your children this school year.

--Don’t sign your child up for academic tutoring unless he/she is in jeopardy of failing a class.

--Give your kids at least an hour of down time after school. Benefits: they will be more cooperative and happy if they can de-stress and “chill-ax” after spending 7 hours at school.
--Have your child do daily or weekly chores – lawn mowing, sweeping, cleaning toilets, vacuuming, taking care of the family pets, etc.

-- Encourage unstructured outside neighborhood activities after school - a walk, a bike ride, hide-n-seek, skateboarding, picking flowers, building something, drawing on the sidewalk with chalk, etc.

--Let your children fail.