Tips For Helping Your Child with Their Homework

Tips for helping your child with homeworkEach time a new school year rolls around there are new homework challenges, not only for the kids but the parents as well.

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The daughter, who as a 4th grader did her homework quite easily while riding the bus home- and in the process earned straight A’s- might struggle as a 5th grader trying to understand why she has to spend some of her free time doing homework.  Here are some tips for helping your child with their homework.

Discuss Homework with Your Child

Make the discussion a friendly one about why we even need to have homework in the first place. Explain to your child how sometimes there isn’t enough time during the school day for kids to practice new skills or to completely absorb and learn new concepts.

Listen to what your child has to say.  It may provide you with insights that will help you find ways to encourage and inspire them to get their homework done.

Offer Your Help

Let your children know that you really want them to be successful so that they can do well at school, have plenty of time to relax and have fun, and help make family life enjoyable for everyone.

Tell them that is why you would like to help them set a homework routine up.  That way they will be able to get everything done that they need to do as fast as possible and give them more time to do the things that they enjoy.

Gently remind them that you can’t actually do their homework.  However, you will always be there to help them anytime they get stuck or have questions.

Make Homework a Top Priority

Put a major emphasis on homework at home and make sure it is understood that it is much more important than things like playtime and watching television.  You will need to reinforce that this is priority in your house.

Set Up an Individual Homework Schedule for Each Child

Some kids like to tackle their homework immediately after getting home from school so they can just get it over with.  Other children might need to watch some television, get some physical exercise or have a snack first.  Help each one of your children set up a good schedule for doing homework.  This will help them feel a lot more in control of the situation, and they might approach their homework with an attitude that is a lot more positive.

Get Your Child’s Teachers Involved

Once school has been underway for a couple of weeks, you’ll be able to get a better feel for how your children are handling their homework.  If you think there might be a problem, either with a child not fully understanding their lessons or their ability to get their homework done, make an appointment to see the teacher as soon as possible.  Usually teachers prefer to address issues right away rather than having to deal with a larger problem later in the school term.

Organization is The Key To Success

Setting up a place, time and routine for getting homework done will create a positive environment that will help your child succeed.

Teach them how to organize their time as well as their personal belongings such as pencils, notebooks and backpacks.

Check The Homework Assignments Every Day.

Ask them questions to ensure they understand what they need to do. Then after they have finished their homework, review it with them.

For children who have a hard time sticking with a task, it might be a good idea to come up with checklists that you can put on the refrigerator or their desk.

Keep working closely with your child until you see that he or she is handling the homework well and is able to complete it on a regular basis.  Once you are confident about this, you can scale back on your involvement.  Just remember that things can change from year to year, depending on how demanding course work is and the requirements new teachers assign.

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