The Importance of Make-up Work

My son who is in middle school has been sick quite a lot this year, making him fall behind in his schoolwork. Every time he is ill and absent from school, he is completely inundated with work in every subject when he returns to school. He has all the current assignments to complete on top of finishing up the missing work. Is it really essential for him to make up all the schoolwork that he missed in class during the time he was sick? -- Catching-Up
Answer: Classes are organized in such a way that each day a certain amount of new material is usually presented and expected to be mastered within a certain number of lessons. There is also review work that helps children learn recently presented lessons. Furthermore, in some classes, it is absolutely essential for current material to be mastered so future lessons can be handled. This is especially true in math and science classes. For this reason, it is important for children to make up at least part of most missed lessons. Textbook chapters almost always need to be read. Failing to make up key materials can lead to difficulties in mastering new materials as well as poor test scores.
Making up work can be easier if the children get the daily assignments from their school while they are still at home. Call your son's school and make arrangements to get his work so that he will have more of it completed before returning to school. In some schools, teachers make this easy by putting daily assignments online.
You need to talk to your child's teachers, especially if his illnesses stop him from doing much of his schoolwork at home. A plan needs to be devised that will help him stay as current as possible when he misses school, without drowning him in work on his return.