Helping Kids With Homework: How Much Is Too Much?
An involved parent can be the difference between academic success and a child falling by the wayside. We want our kids to be at the top of their game, and we want their grades to show their hard work and dedication too. But you have to make sure you aren't hovering over your kids as they finish the work meant for students, not their parents.
There are ways you can be there for your kids, without interfering with their education. Here are three ways to enhance an education, and the homework that comes with it.
1. Set Up a Daily Schedule
Whether it's the minute your child gets home from school or the hour right after dinner, your child should have a consistent homework time. It's not recommended that you schedule that hour right before bedtime, so talk to your child and look at your after-school schedule to see what works best for him.
2. Review Homework Assignments
This doesn't mean with an eraser and a pencil. Once your child has completed her homework, take a look to see if she has followed the instructions and completed every part of her assigned work. While there's nothing wrong in discussing the subject of the work, if you see she's way off-base, resist the temptation to provide her with the correct answers. Coming to the results on her own is the best way to learn.
3. Demonstrate the Importance of Learning
If you're still reading, having discussions, and showing interest in the world around you, your child will notice. Don't belittle his education, or he will do the same. Show, by example, how expanding your mind in a variety of subjects is interesting and fun. If this means weekend field trips to the museum or the cheese factory, do it!
How do you get your kids focused on homework?
Image via woodleywonderworks/Flickr
Piping Hot Posts
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
PonyChaser
For reference, mine's in 2nd Grade. He has very little homework so far, we've only been in school for three days. But referring back to 1st grade, he had one (sometimes two) worksheets each week, math flashcards assisgned once a day, and was to keep a reading log ("Reading Counts", where the entire school logs the number of words read).
The worksheets were done after school. He had time to change and have a snack, but then we'd sit and he'd do his worksheet while I did something else quiet, like paying bills or work for one of my volunteer efforts. He *hates* flashcards, so we came up with games... timed (race against yesterday's performance), prizes (earn an M&M for every correct answer, lose one for every wrong), etc. I'd mix the games up, and we did flashcards almost every day. Reading is the easiest. That's done every night before bed. He reads me a book, I read a chapter to him.
As for checking homework, I review it, and if I find a mistake, I will hand it back, saying, "there's a mistake [somewhere on the page; in column 2; whatever was appropriate]" Usually, he'd find it and fix it. If not, we'd go over the page together until he found the mistake. I never *did* it for him.
PonyChaser
Oh! I forgot about Spelling Words. We use a website called Spelling City. It has a free side and a pay side, and we just use the free. It allows you to enter the child's spelling list for the week and then he can go on there and play games like hangmouse (mouse tries to steal cheese from sleeping cat), word searches, etc. My son loves it, and it gives him a little "playtime" in his homework time.
sodapple
BayNoelle
I used to work at a day care for elementary and middle school kids, and I was always the staff that was tasked with working the homework room (some parents would put their kid on the list to do homework at the center when they got there).
With the upper level math (long division, pre-algebra, etc), I found a process that worked pretty well. I would walk the child through the first problem (they would do the work, I would provide the steps and make sure they understood what they were doing as we went). Then with the second problem, the child would talk through it with me - telling me the process and why she was doing what she was doing. And by the third problem, more often then not, it stuck. And they were able to finish the rest of their homework alone.
Christine
PonyChaser
BayNoelle - what an awesome DayCarer you were! (is that the right term? oh, well, the sentiment is the same). I'll bet those kids will never forget how to do that math. it reminds me of a quote by Einstein (and I'm gonna botch it up), "If you can't explain something clearly, you don't understand it."
Christine... it will come. Right now, she's all about finishing. At some point (I hope... I'm STILL fighting this battle with my 2nd grader over art/coloring assignments), they'll start to do some of it for quality rather than speed. I know, when mine had to start thinking things through, rather than just doing stuff by rote (like handwriting, which is all about practice, not learning), he slowed down and got a little more thoughtful about it.
Christine
chrissyann36
My son is in the third grade at a private school that believes in LOTS of hw every night. We have reading every night and alternate two different subjects every night of the week. I help out by typing up study guides for him in science, history/ Arkansas history and geography. He is aces at math so that subject never requires help usually. Home work usually takes a couple of hours so we get to work on it as quickly as we can when we get home from school/work. ( also work at his school as a floating teacher's aide ) I am totally useless when it come to the subjects of Latin, violin and penmen-ship, so he has a tutor for these three on Wednesdays.
Leelee1008
for the most part I have them do it, unless they get stuck and then we try to guide them into the right direction with them figuring it out themself.
ethans_momma06
Awesome stuff!