Helping Your Children with Homework

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This is a partnered guest post.

Every day as a parent brings with it a host of new challenges.

The pregnancy was easy in comparison to what has followed and you’ve now swapped being worried about baby names to stressing over your child’s education.

How, then, can help your kids when it comes to homework and giving them the best possible chance of succeeding in their studies? Read on for a few hints and tip…

Help them to get organised

Becoming organised is an important life skill, so the earlier you can help your little ones learn, the better. Put together a schedule that’s practical, works and fits around your lifestyle. Communicate openly and honestly with your child to get their thoughts on when they feel would be the optimum time for them to knuckle down and do their homework. Teach them how to prioritize their workload.

Create a calm environment for them to study in

A hectic home will be an unproductive home for your child. Make space somewhere in your house to set up an oasis of calm where your kid has everything they need to sit down and work productively without distractions – and that includes from yourself. Leave them to get on with their work unless they ask for help and try not to pressure them too much.

Be positive, think positive and act positive 

Positivity around children is important. It’s inevitable they will mistakes at some point and when they do, try and turn a negative into a positive. Stay calm and stay focused on the bigger picture. Help them to bounce back from setbacks because it builds character – remember how tough school was for you?

Learn when enough is enough

Everyone needs a break every now and then to recharge the batteries and just focus on something else for a short period of time. If your child – and you for that matter – are struggling to concentrate and seem to be getting nowhere then stop what you’re doing and take a short break. Go out and let off some steam in the garden, go for a walk or have some food and then come back to what you’re doing.

Don’t do the work it for them

However tempting it may be to help your children by practically doing an assignment for them and no matter how upset they get about school work, learn to take a back seat.  Don’t do it for them because they may see asking you for a help as an easy way out.

Anne

I'm a mother of 2 who likes to get involved in too much! Besides writing here I started a non-profit, I'm on the PTO board, very active in my community and volunteer in the school. I enjoy music, reading, cooking, traveling and spending time with my family. We just adopted our 3rd cat and love them all!

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Comments

  1. It’s tough getting my daughter to do her homework. She has trouble focusing on it.

  2. Great tips, thank you so much!

  3. This the one thing I hate about school LOL helping with homework.

  4. ah homework time is SO hard for me. I always want to do the work for my daughter and when I can’t explain the work to her in a way that she understands I get so frustrated.

  5. I don’t have to worry about that yet with my little crew but I know my day is coming.

  6. Great tips and for sure, don’t do the work for them. It sets up really bad habits.

  7. Homework is something I didn’t have to deal with when my daughter was in middle school because she always did it in study hour. Now that she is in high school, I am already being asked to help!

  8. Great tips! Thanks so very much for sharing!

  9. Staying calm and relaxed is definitely important.

  10. One of my friends asked me about tutoring her daughter. She doesn’t have the patience so I totally understand. Great article.

  11. Great tips. I would always do my homework in a quite environment so I could concentrate on the task at hand.

  12. Don’t do the work for them is certainly the key!! my daughter actuallly got better scores because she was assisted but not helped

  13. These are great tips. The one about letting them take a break comes in handy for my middle, he will start losing focus so we take a step away.

  14. Thanks for the tips. Luckily my kids are pretty good at doing their homework on their own which makes me happy. I am glad I am not always having to remind them.

  15. I need more patience with homework. Thanks for the tips.