“Schools should teach kids how to learn, and parents should
teach them how to work by establishing
work rules and work ethic at home.” – Dr. Mel Levine, Co-Founder and
Co-Chair, All Kinds of Minds
Homework provides an opportunity for parents to reinforce and build upon
what a child learns at
school. Follow these tips to help your child achieve success during
homework time.
- Set a consistent time each day for doing homework. During this
time, distractions should be limited (e.g., television should be off;
other family members should be doing quiet work too).
- Encourage your child to make a homework checklist. The checklist
should include estimating how long each assignment will take, setting
priorities, collecting materials for the first task, setting a timer,
completing the task, collecting materials for the next task, resetting
the timer, and placing the completed assignments in his
backpack.
- As needed, provide assistance to help your child get started on a
task. Support might include providing the first sentence of a
paragraph or clarifying directions.
- Help your child make a list of all the materials he needs to gather
before starting his homework.
- Provide materials only as they are needed. For instance, instead
of distributing an entire package of pencils, give your child two
pencils at a time.
- Break large tasks into smaller, shorter, or simpler “mini-tasks.”
Allow your child to take a brief break after completing each
mini-task.
- Before beginning homework, encourage your child to decide which
assignments can be done without assistance and which require the help of
an adult. The simpler assignments should be completed before the
more complex tasks.
- Ask, “Why do we need to learn this?” and answer it seriously. Connect
the concept with “real life” to establish relevancy and
interest. If you need help making the connection, ask your child’s
teacher.
- Check work in progress. If an assignment that is given on Monday
is due on Friday, ask your child to show you what she has finished each
day or to show you a plan of what will be done each day between Monday
and Friday.
- Encourage your child to follow a writing process. For instance,
use the C.O.P.S. proofreading strategy (capitalization, organization,
punctuation, spelling) to create a checklist.
All Kinds of Minds is a non-profit institute that develops programs to
help parents, educators, clinicians, and students address
differences in learning. For more information and additional tips for
helping students succeed, visit www.allkindsofminds.org
© 2006 All Kinds of Minds
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Reprinted with the permission of All Kinds of Minds © 1999-2008 All Kinds of Minds
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