Get Rid of the Homework Headache! How to Help Your Child with Homework
Helping your child with homework is one of the most important things you can do as a parent. They need help in studying and your contribution can be a huge factor in their development.
When you help your child study, you are strengthening your bond with them, encouraging good study skills and showing them that you care. However, helping kids with homework can turn into a nightmare. Kicking, screaming, frustration and discouragement can quickly become a mainstay with parents helping with homework, but it doesn’t have to be that way. There are practical ways to effectively be a valuable resource and asset to your child’s education, and once you learn how to help children with homework, you will see how easy it can be.
Tips for Helping Kids with Homework
1. Set the scene. To create a routine and structure, study in the same time and place with your kids every day. Remove distractions and set up the location to be conducive to studying. Make sure the T.V., cellphones, iPods, etc. are off and all attention is on the work. Make sure you have everything you need before you sit down to help with flow and concentration. Maintaining consistency in the time, location and style of the studying is one of the biggest ways how to help children with homework.
2. Don’t do all the work. You can help your children without doing their entire project, or writing the whole paper. Developing good study habits happens only when you are forced to do the majority of the work. The object here is to guide the child in their homework instead of completing it and then explaining to them what you did. If they can learn good study habits, they’ll be set up for success for the rest of their lives.
First, talk about the assignment, gauge their ability to successfully complete the assignment and encourage them as they begin. Always have them try the math problem, for example, before you start showing them what to do. Let them do the work and you just guide them along. Helping children study is all about being there for support and instruction, not taking the responsibility of the assignment away from them.
3. Keep communication with the teacher. Do your best to stay in the loop with assignments, due dates, etc. without being an overly-involved nuisance to the teacher. Nowadays, a lot of schools have websites that post all of the teacher’s assignments, information alerts, upcoming tests and other pertinent information. These websites are fantastic tools to us, and can help you avoid making your child feel like you don’t trust them. Use the website together and it will feel like a joint effort. Be sure to check in with the teacher every once in awhile to see if there is any area that needs improvement and how you might best be able to help your child acquire good studying skills.
Involvement, when practiced at a healthy level, can be one of the best tools to develop your child as a student and an individual.
Have you learned how to help kids with homework? What advice would you give to parents? Sound off in the comment section below!
