It is always sad to hear a child tell me how much they struggle with their homework and are frustrated because they just don’t understand what to do. When I ask the child who helps them, I hear something even worse,

"No One. My mom doesn’t understand it either and my dad is never home."

I also hear stories of how children are sent off to their room to do their homework and told not to come out until it is finished.

This is generally so the parent can have some "down" time.

Parents need to be actively involved in their child’s homework. This means you are there to support, encourage, and guide your child through the learning process. This does not mean that you take control and DO the homework for them.

This is the other side of the pendulum swing that I hear in my seminars. What I recommend to help your child be successful in completing their homework, learning what they need to know for class, and you being involved in the entire process is the following:

1) Consistency – Home work is done at the same time and in the same place every day. (Ex. Kitchen Table at 5:00 PM)

2) Guidelines and Goals – Set up guidelines before starting. Once your homework is done and 100% accurate, you can go play outside. Accuracy is important to include as all children will race through the work so they can go out and play.

3) Guidance – Keep an eye on them while doing their homework but do not jump in to help at the first request. Encourage your child to keep trying and if they are still stuck then point them in the proper direction.

4) Completion - Once the child feels their homework is 100% correct, have them ask you to check it. At first, mark any answers that are incorrect and have them correct those questions. As time goes by, do not tell them which answers are incorrect, only the quantity. This will give to teach your child to double check ALL answers.

5) Work Together – If your child is completely stuck, and you believe they have given 100% effort, sit down and go over the question and walk them through it step by step. Show them how to answer the question, do not just give them the answer. You will find that investing this type of time in your child will have a huge payoff. The bond between you will be much stronger, and they will look up to you with admiration and respect.

This entry was posted on January 5, 2008 at 1:00 am. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Posted in Parenting Tips by Denny Strecker No Comments Yet