Time

I designate a set time for my students and I to blog, Wednesday at 10:30am through until 11:10am. During this time we all sit in front of our computers and madly blog. I have fallen into this trap. My aim is to always complete my blog within this 40 minute space.
Last week I reflected on this blogging process. I believe that this time constraint limits and affects the quality of what I write. I am in such a rush to get this blog written and published that I do not give myself enough time to re-read, edit and check on the quality and depth of what I have written. Many of the blogs that I read are thought provoking and full of depth and this is what I want to achieve with my written blog.
How do I achieve this? Time.
We all wish we could have more time. Time that can be spent with our families, time that can be spent pursuing the things we love in life, perhaps even more time spent in our jobs to ensure we can produce and work at a higher standard.
Creating this extra time is difficult. Who has extra time in our busy lives? I look at my usual week day schedule: Rise at 6:00am, leave for work at 6:55am returning home anytime between 4:45pm and 6:30pm. Dinner with family follows and before getting children ready for bed and the accompanying bedtime story which we conclude around 7:45pm. After this is either catch up on some work or relax on the couch and talk with my wife. I am generally in bed around 10:00pm. Somewhere in this busy schedule I try to ensure some form of exercise.
Where can I get the extra time that will allow me to spend on certain pursuits such as being able to edit my blog more carefully, check my Google Reader feeds or my twitter account. This remains the challenge. I don't want to sacrifice my family or exercise time and I have to do my job to the best of my ability.

I know it is very anti-social but I tend to spend recess and lunch times at my desk. Just having this extra time does allow me to catch up on some extra work. Just doing something like this practise does allow me the extra time that I need to just.....live.

Homework

Homework is an emotive topic. I would like to go on record early in this blog by stating that I believe it would make things a lot easier both at school and at home if homework was abolished.
Having stated this though I am truly of the belief that as educators we would be doing students a disservice if we abolished homework.
Homework serves an important purpose. It is required to reinforce concepts and ideas done in class. It is required as preparation for exams and to complete assignments. If we did not have homework in the primary years students would not learn the importance of using their own time for school purposes. How would they survive in secondary school and university if they have not established healthy routines at a young age?
Over the years I have earned somewhat of a reputation for being tough on homework and a teacher who gives too much homework (a reputation I do not deserve). My current school has a policy that states a Year 6 student should be doing 60 minutes of homework between Monday and Thursday nights. All I am doing is following this policy. Currently our homework is distributed on a Monday and is due Friday. This allows a student who has an extra curricular activity on any particular evening or afternoon plenty of extra time to complete the set tasks. These tasks usually include Maths mentals, some spelling and grammar work and generally either a literature based or Inquiry Studies based activity. Combined with this our students also get Chinese homework each week.
Through this approach to homework students also get to learn the important skill of time management. It is absolutely fine if they complete all of their set work on one night as long as it is all handed in completed on the Friday.
Homework being an emotive issue really struck home to me when I first started teaching in Hong Kong. Finding a balance between the desires of parents was difficult. There were many parents of a Chinese background who wanted more homework whilst the Australian parents wanted less homework as they wanted their children outside playing sport and being with their friends of an afternoon.
In this situation it was incredibly beneficial to me to have a school policy on homework. My answer to both groups of parents was that I was simply following the school policy of the set amount each day. For those wanted more homework I directed them to websites and books which could give them what they wanted but I was not going to offer a reduced amount of homework as some desired.
It is important that there are consequences in place for students who do not complete their homework tasks. For me this generally involves missing out on our set Friday free time.
The difficulties that homework can create really struck home to me when my daughter last year started to be given work in Year 2 that needed to be done at home. She is a beautiful yet stubborn girl who would only do her work at the same time each week. I did not hesitate to tell her to redo her work if it was of an unacceptable quality.I know some of the parents of the students I teacher laughed when I told them of the issues I had with my daughter's homework. They simply replied "Now you know what you have put us through over the years".
To sum it up I believe that homework is a 'necessary evil'.

Parenting

I am certainly not the world's greatest parent. I try hard, love my children dearly but I always question can I or should I be doing things differently as I have been tested of late.
We have two beautiful children; an 8 year old daughter and a 3 year old son. They are lively, energetic and loving but very different personalities. My daughter is quiet, considerate and thoughtful. My son is almost the complete opposite besides the fact he is very shy.
After teaching at all boys schools for 7 years I decided that if I ever had a son I wanted him to be energetic and dynamic. I certainly got that.
At the moment we are currently having issues with our son. He cries often, throws tantrums regularly and at times is downright obstinate. He is a Mummy's boy and there are days when he will not say anything civil at all to me in the morning. Afternoons on my return from work are usually better.
The weekend and past few days have been rough. Monday was a shocker. He woke up screaming and later that day when we arrived home would not enter our place sitting outside howling. Once we finally dragged him in he went straight to his room and didn't leave finally going to bed in the clothes he had on all day.
I was sure there was something wrong with him on Monday and wanted to take him to hospital to get him checked out.
I know all of this behaviour is supposed to be a normal part of being a toddler but I was worried. I think we were spoilt with our daughter when she did not exhibit these type of antics.
Yesterday was a far better day (besides the fact he refused to get out of his pyjamas all day). He was happy engaged and loving having people play with him. He does find it difficult when his parents and sister leave him early in the morning to not return until late in the afternoon at the earliest. He loves having his family with him.
I want to know if there is more I should be doing. Is what he is currently going through normal or s there something wrong with him? When will he exit this phase?
I know this is a test for my parenting skills. I want to be able to rise to the occasion and be able to support my son through what he is currently going through. Part of me is worried that the current issues will have some kind of influence on my son later in life. I know this is probably me being paranoid.
Despite all of these issues (and I know all parents go through them) I love my children dearly and am incredibly lucky to have been given the gift of them in my life.