Helping your kids with their homework can be tricky business. Young children especially usually need help, at least to understand the instructions and problems.
But, as kids grow older, this need decreases. Unfortunately, so does many a school child’s motivation to complete homework.
Homework can seem like an unnecessary chore for kids approaching their teen years, and sometimes laziness can compel them to ask for help when they really could figure it out on their own.
Other times, older children do legitimately need help on their homework and parents have to step in and assist them with their work. Anyone who remembers grade school probably remembers times when they were completely stuck on a question and needed help. Well this is what moms and dads are good for. However, there is a danger in helping TOO much.
First, your child may just not want to do their homework and is only trying to get you to do it for them. Other times, they may actually need help, but the tendency of many parents is to complete difficult work on their own rather than go through the long process of explaining how to find the solution.
So where does that leave us as parents? Should we help? Or shouldn’t we? I say helping is a must, but how you help is what is important. Here are a few tips on how to help your child with his homework without depriving him of a learning opportunity:
1. Make a Homework Schedule and Keep To It
One of the main ways you can help your child with their homework is insisting that he or she has a specific time where they must complete their homework. This lets them know that they will not be doing anything else during that time, so there is no possibility that they can put it off till “later”, go play and then come back too tired to get their work done.
Also it automatically puts a rewards and consequences system in place; if they finish early, they can go on to do something else. If they dawdle and don’t finish their work, they won’t get to play.
2. Be Careful How You Approach and Explain Problems
Some things are pretty easy to help with. History for example can be easily checked for accuracy if you are not sure about dates and such. These things are more or less set in stone. However, sometimes when trying to explain things we unintentionally confuse or contradict what our kids are learning in school.
One tricky subject is math. Basic math is easy to help with, however more advanced math may be difficult to help with simply because the methods we were taught to solve the problems may not be the same methods taught today.
There are many ways to solve math problems and the ones you are using to help your kids with their homework may be completely different than the ones the teacher expects them to use in class. This is why good communication between parents and teachers is so important.
3. Make Learning Fun
Younger children don’t need much motivation to do their homework. If their parents are excited about homework, they will be too. Showing your child that learning can be fun is one of the best things you can do while they are still young, because it is a belief that will grow with them and help them through their school years and for the rest of their lives.
Older kids need this type of attitude towards homework as well. You don’t need to throw a party every time you do homework, but sometimes just fixing a special snack (also very important to power their continuously working brains) or having an encouraging, rather than pressured, attitude about homework can help keep things light and enjoyable.