Homework Survival Guide

A guide for students and parents/guardians

Ideas for your consideration from the counselors of USD 417

A Place to Work

Find the right place. In some families, having a central location, where all children in the family do their homework works best. This may be the dining room or kitchen table. In other families, each child has his/her own study place, usually at a desk in the bedroom. What works for you depends on your children. Some kids do best under the watchful eye of a parent/guardian, in which case the dining room or kitchen may work best. Others need the quiet of their bedrooms to avoid distractions. Some kids like to work with the radio on (and this helps them focus), while others do worse with this kind of background noise. Think about possible distractions that will need to be avoided (a nearby television, the telephone, etc.) when planning your childπs workspace.

Gathering Necessary Materials

Youngsters can waste a lot of time tracking down things like pencils, paper, rulers, etc. when beginning their homework. To avoid this, stock your childπs study area with these materials and any other he/she is likely to need, such as a dictionary, highlighters, pens, scissors, glue, tape, colored pencils, stapler and staples, etc.

It may also be helpful to set up file folders to keep track of necessary papers, such as long-term assignment directions, tests and homework that have been passed back (to help in studying for the next test), etc.

Those folders should not be used for storing homework, since your child is likely to then leave it at home and forget to take it to school. Completed homework should be placed in the childπs backpack or notebook as soon as it is finished to ensure it gets to school.

You may also want to have a plastic container (such as a dishpan) that your child can ≥dump≤ their school things in as soon as they get home from school. This will help avoid last minute frantic searches for permission slips, library books, messages from the principal, notices of meetings, etc.

Organizing Homework/Setting Priorities

A specific time should be used to complete homework assignments each and every school day, even when a child insists that they have not been assigned homework. For example, if a student is having trouble with reading (and they do not have homework assigned), permit them to read a magazine that they enjoy, and later ask them questions about the article. Many psychological studies suggest that having the same time each day for homework (before or after dinner) works best. Students can always benefit by reviewing for upcoming tests, re-reading assignments and preparing for projects in advice. This technique prevents arguments about whether homework has been assigned or notäand almost always results in academic improvement.

A homework session might begin by reviewing the dayπs assignments. It

is probably a good idea to draw up a list of assignments on a separate sheet of

paper. The steps to follow might be:

ß Make sure the child brought home the necessary books, worksheets, etc.

ß Break longer tasks into sub tasks.

ß Have the child decide what order she will complete the work. A good rule of thumb is to have the child begin and end with assignments he/she considers ≥easy≤, sandwiching more difficult assignments in between.

ß Estimate how much time it will take to complete the work.

ß Make sure you have allowed enough time for the child to complete all of the homework allowing for break time as necessary.

Sometimes it is difficult for kids to complete homework because of other obligations they may have (sports events, doctorπs appointments, scout meetings, chores, etc.). You may find it helpful to put together a weekly calendar to keep track of these activities. Once a week (Sunday afternoons sound good), sit down with your child and fill out or review a weekly calendar together. Then, as you plan your homework time each day, you can reference this calendar to allow time for the other activities in which your child is involved.

Getting Started

As mentioned above, it is usually best to have the child begin with a task that they consider ≥easy≤. Some children may want to start with the hardest task first to get it over with, and this is acceptable unless the child has a very difficult time getting started and will-dawdle or avoid the difficult assignment even though it was his/her choice to start with it.

For many youngsters, just getting started on homework seems like an insurmountable obstacle. We have several suggestions for handling this problem:

• Have the child specify exactly when he or she will begin the homework and then reward the child for getting to work within five minutes of the specified time.

• Sit with your child for the first five minutes to make sure he/she gets off to a good start.

• Talk with your child about assignments before beginning. This is particularly important for written language assignments or more open-ended tasks.

• Orient your child to his/her assignment; walk him/her through the first one or two items to make sure he/she understands what the assignment asks (make sure you do not end up doing the assignments for your child).

• Build in a short break relatively quickly, if getting started is a problem.

Getting Through It

Make sure adequate breaks are built in. Many children have a great deal of difficulty working for long stretches of time on homework without a break. Better to plan for a two hour homework session with frequent breaks built in than to try to cram homework into a one-hour, non-stop session. You can use a kitchen timer to keep breaks to a reasonable length (e.g. 5-10 mins.).

Breaks might be used to get a snack, play a few minutes, or shoot baskets. Breaks should be scheduled when tasks get accomplished rather than after a set period of time, otherwise your child can daydream the time away and still get his break. If the task takes longer than your child can sustain or if the child gets ≥stuck≤, have him/her switch to another assignment rather than stop working altogether.