Early Learning Centres

Anastasia De Waal, 20 September 2010

Put down the Scholastic Book Club catalogue, stand back from the multi-coloured 8-tone xylophone and pack away the handcrafted wooden alphabet cubes – earlier this week Dr Dimitra Hartas, from Warwick’s Institute of Education, revealed that ‘children’s language, literacy and social-emotional development were not affected by the frequency of home learning activities’.  What a lot of unhelpful and counterintuitive nonsense, argues Annaliese Briggs.

Whilst Dr Hartas’s findings may put a smile on the faces of those struggling to find the TV remote in amongst a sea of expensive, noisy and time-consuming toys, her conclusions negate the very purpose of delivering lessons in the living room – establishing, from an early age, the home as a supportive learning environment.

A home should be many things: a place for communal eating, peaceful sleeping and, inevitably, arguing over Friday evening TV schedules.  Fundamentally, however, with hormonal teenagers running riot, the home should also be a place where homework tasks and exam revision can be done in quiet, comfortable surroundings.  We may not all have the luxury of a study in the west-wing, but turning the radio off, taking the phone off the hook and furnishing your darling examinee with regular revision refreshments can turn most chaotic homes into studious workspaces.  This best practice is best established early on.

Children may not reap the benefits of being force-fed a helping of the three Rs along with their chicken nuggets and peas by the time they turn five (Dr Hartas questioned children aged three and then again at age five), but come the exam years, when children arrive home with bulging backpacks full of homework, they may stand a better chance of settling down and completing it.  I imagine they’ll fare better at school, and their teachers will thank you.