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There are perhaps no more important homework assignments than those given to students during their early years. Experiences with those first assignments can influence students’ attitudes towards homework for years to come. It is essential, then, that homework in the early grades results in success and good feelings. These early assignments will become the building blocks for successful study habits in the future. Parents are an important part of the homework process and should provide support and motivation at home. Parents should establish an on-going communication with the teacher, a helpful environment for study at home and a clear understanding of setting and achieving goals.
Homework Policy Most teachers will send home either their own specific homework policy or the general homework policy of the school. Increasing in popularity is the availability of schools’ own websites that post the daily homework assignments for each grade. If you are unsure of the teacher’s expectations regarding homework, set up either a phone conference or face-to-face meeting right at the beginning of school. The teacher should be able to tell parents how much time the child needs to devote to doing the nightly homework, what the grading policy is, the specific penalties for missing or late assignments and how much parent involvement is expected.
Dealing With Homework Problems Teachers expect your child to do the homework independently and ask for help only after giving the homework his or her best effort. If your child does have trouble with an assignment, first check to see if your child understands the directions. If your child continues to have difficulty, give help by modeling one problem. If problems still continue, don’t do the work for your child. Write the teacher a note explaining what you believe to be the problem. Even if the entire assignment is not fully complete, praise your child’s efforts each night. A parent’s words of support are the single most important way to motivate a child to do well in school.
Investigating Homework Problems If your child is getting frustrated while doing homework, there is usually a good reason. Investigate the possible problems. First, talk to the teacher. How is your child in the classroom? Does he or she participate in class? Are they grasping the concepts during class lessons? Is there enough direct teaching of the skills necessary to complete a homework assignment? Does the homework basically review class lessons or are new concepts introduced as part of an assignment? What can you do to support and reinforce your child’s application of the necessary skills? Next, talk to your child. Does your child prefer an orderly, structured way to learn or a less structured and more random method? What are his or preferences for time of day? Some learn best in the morning; others prefer the afternoon. Still others function much better in the evening. Get involved with your child’s daily homework by asking specific questions. Ask him what he is studying in social studies. Have him tell you about the book he is reading. Taking an active interest in your child’s homework is a priority. But don’t confuse taking an active interest with taking control. Try to understand why your child may take one hour to do a 20-minute homework assignment, but do not take the liberty of doing his homework for him. Finally, do you understand your child’s learning style? Does your child understand his or her own learning style? Does your child prefer to learn visually, that is, to see what they are learning? Is your child an auditory learner, preferring to hear what they are learning? Or, is he or she more kinesthetic, preferring to move his body as he learns?
How Learning Style Affects Homework A person’s learning style seems to be a combination of both experience and personality. Some people like to deal with many ideas and possibilities all at once. Others prefer to deal with only a few ideas. Still others like to start with the smaller parts and work toward the big picture. It is important to remember that as a parent you must understand your child’s strengths and limitations. Additionally, explain your learning style to your child, and talk about how these strengths and limitations affect you as you learn, work, relax, etc. Understanding leads to discussing practical solutions for solving the problems of difficult homework assignments. For example, if your child is a visual learner and the history teacher rarely uses pictures, maps, or charts, show your child how to look for these and other visual aids or clues in his or textbook. Furthermore, go on the Internet and find supplemental material that is visual in nature, or take your child to the library’s reference section.
Setting and Achieving Goals-Organization As parents, we are responsible for setting goals for our children and helping them to achieve those goals. The first crucial step is establishing good organizational skills. Every child must have an assignment pad. Most schools provide a pad that fits into a 3- ring binder and has ample room to write down all of the daily assignments. Don’t purchase small notebooks sold as assignment pads because they can easily become separated from the rest of your child’s books. In fact, encourage your child to keep homework and class notes for one class together. Many students claim that they do not need to write down their homework assignments because they always remember them. They are convinced that writing assignments down takes too much time and is therefore inefficient. If this sounds familiar, try a simple experiment at home. Write a typical homework assignment for 2-3 subjects on a piece of paper and ask your child to copy it. If you’re stuck for ideas, use old entries from your child’s assignment pad. At the same time, use a stopwatch to time how long it takes for him to copy it. Let enough time elapse, and then ask your child to tell you what the homework is without looking at what he copied. Once again, time the response with a stopwatch. Then, compare the 2 times. It is guaranteed that writing the assignments down will take less time than trying to remember them accurately hours later.
A Quiet Place To Study Students and parents must understand that to do homework successfully, they must have a quiet place to work. The study area should be well lit and have all the necessary supplies at hand. The study area can be in any part of the home: kitchen, bedroom, living room, or den. It doesn’t matter where it is as long as it’s a place where your child can concentrate and get his or her work done. If you have difficulty finding a quiet place at home, come up with some alternatives. For instance, keep one room off limits to others in the family during homework time, or arrange for your child to go to the library or a friend’s house.
Scheduling Time Homework, like other activities and responsibilities, must be scheduled into a student’s life. Help your child develop good homework habits by encouraging him or her to start homework at the same time each day. Make a schedule that gives your child a time when someone is available to help him with the homework. If you have more than one child in school, schedule the same daily homework time for all of them. This will make it more convenient for you or another adult to be available. Give your child lots of praise whenever homework is done appropriately and independently. Reward your child with a treat such as watching TV, going out to play ball, or chatting with a friend. Keep the reward commensurate with the effort. And remember; don’t over schedule your child’s after school life. This will indeed affect his energy for tackling homework. Conversely, if there is little to no homework assigned, use the allotted time for reading. Daily reading, if not prescribed by the school, should be based on the child’s age and reading ability. If your child is an emergent reader, sit and read to him.
Managing Goals Student’s need to learn how to set clear, realistic goals for themselves in school and at home. Even more important than setting a goal is seeing the steps to achieve that goal and following through on these steps. Help your child to set short-term and long-term goals. Remember to place as much emphasis on the steps needed to achieve the goal as on the goal itself. One way to achieve this is by using a goal ladder. Setting a goal ladder will help your child break down larger assignments into smaller, more manageable bits. To illustrate, draw a picture of a ladder and write the long-term goal as the top rung. Then draw 3-5 rungs leading up to the long-term goal and write a short-term goal for each rung working from the bottom rung to the top rung. As the steps to the goal are completed, your child will feel less anxious and more satisfied that he is managing his work more efficiently.
Some Final Tips Look over your child’s homework for neatness and mistakes. Feel free to help manage the paper blizzard by emptying the backpack and taking a few moments to file papers in their proper place. Buying a spiral-bound or looseleaf notebook with included pocket folders can help manage the onslaught of handouts. Help your child gather up all homework and schoolbooks before bedtime so they will be in one place in the morning. Always praise your child for his efforts and help him to understand how satisfying completing work and being prepared for school can be.
Both parents and teachers want to encourage children to become responsible for their own actions. If the giving of help keeps your child from developing his or her own sense of responsibility, then it is harmful. Parents can help too much, which removes responsibility from the child. If you find yourself taking charge too much, make a conscious effort to resist the temptation, even if it means your child will face consequences in school. Ask yourself, “Am I helping my child or enabling him?” If parents promote healthy study habits in their children from an early age, they will become accomplished, independent, skilled learners for the duration of their school career.
Michele Schneider was the Director/Founder of the Pound Ridge Learning Center, formerly located in Scott’s Corners.