Helping Your Grade-schooler With Homework

Homework is your child's responsibility, so you should just stay out of the way, right? Not necessarily. With a little support from you, homework can be a positive experience for your child - one that enriches learning, reinforces daily classroom lessons, and fosters lifelong organizational skills.

So why is homework so important? Well, it's one of the first ways that children develop a sense of responsibility for completing their own work. Homework also teaches kids essential skills they need to succeed in school and future employment:

• learning how to read and follow directions independently

• managing and budgeting time (for long-term assignments like book reports)

• completing work neatly and to the best of their ability

Although it can be difficult, it's important to build homework time into your child's busy schedule, making sure that it's not left until the remaining minutes before bedtime. It's a good idea to set rules for when homework and studying need to be done and when the TV can be turned on and should be turned off. The less TV, the better, especially on school nights. Making homework a priority will help your child recognize the importance of learning, reading, and studying.

It's also important to never do the work for your child, but to be available to help answer any questions he or she might have about homework. This gives you the opportunity to monitor your child's study habits and overall progress, as well as identify potential problems early on.

Setting Up Shop
Whether they prefer to get cozy on the couch or to hunker down on their beds, where kids should do homework depends on their age. The kitchen or dining room table is a popular workspace for younger children; they often feel more comfortable being near a parent or caregiver for help and encouragement. Older children may prefer to retreat to their rooms, but you may still want to check in periodically and review your child's homework when it's completed.

Wherever your child chooses to do his or her homework, it's important to make sure that the workspace is:

• well-lit

• comfortable

• stocked with school supplies such as pens, pencils, paper, stapler, calculator, ruler, etc., as well as references such as a dictionary and thesaurus

• quiet and free from distractions - TV, video games, phone calls, or chatting with other family members

If you aren't able to be home when your child gets out of school - as many working parents aren't - and you need to arrange for after-school care, try to find a program or private caregiver with a quiet, comfortable workspace that's as free of distractions as possible. It's also important for there to be a caregiver available to answer any questions your child might have about assignments.

If your child is having problems with homework or you don't feel comfortable with him or her doing homework in after-school care, try to schedule a time between dinner and bedtime to sit down with your child and go over assignments and any questions or concerns together. Even if your child does do homework in the after-school care environment, it's still a good idea to check up on his or her progress and make sure that assignments are being understood and completed.

If the nightly routine becomes too chaotic for both you and your child, try to schedule some time on the weekends to go over long-term assignments and projects, and to address any concerns or difficulties your child is having in a particular subject. Although the daily grind can be hectic for everyone, it's important to show your child that you're always available, even when things get really busy.

How Much Is Too Much - or Not Enough?
Whereas some students occasionally come home with no homework at all, others seem to be spending every waking moment doing one assignment or another every day after school. Unfortunately, there' s no steadfast rule for how much time your child should spend doing homework. However, the U.S. Department of Education (USDE) offers these estimates as a guideline:

• kindergarten through second grade: 10 to 20 minutes each day

• third through sixth grades: 30 to 60 minutes

• seventh through ninth grades: the amount will obviously be more than in the earlier grades and may vary from night to night

The USDE also points out that because young children have short attention spans and need to feel like they've finished a task successfully, giving them shorter assignments more often may be more beneficial than giving them fewer longer assignments.

It's important to remember, though, that reading - which is essential for young kids, in particular - is usually included in assignments, which can add considerably to the amount of time spent on homework. Also, the amount of time spent on homework will vary from day to day and will depend on the age and skills of your child, as well as on the policies of your child's teacher and the school.

Especially in the later grades, when your child will have multiple teachers, homework can really add up. Although it may seem like a child is taking a long time to complete assignments, it's important to remember that all kids learn in different ways. Some need breaks, whereas others work better with a time limit; other kids enjoy doing extra work.

If you're concerned, though, that your child is spending too much time on homework, talk to your child first to find out if he or she is stuck on certain tasks and understands the directions. And if you're worried that your child is getting too much or too little homework, talk with his or her teacher to learn about the homework policies. Often, the teacher can clarify assignment objectives or review concepts taught in the classroom to make homework easier - and to make sure that your child grasps what's being taught.

If your child consistently says he or she has no homework, you might want to contact your child's teacher. If it turns out that homework has been assigned and your child hasn't been completing it, you could ask the teacher to send home a homework notebook that requires your signature each school day to verify that you are aware of the homework assigned.

Homework Help, Internet Style
Many students now use the Internet for homework help and research, but access to inappropriate sexual and violent material is just a click away. So it's a good idea for parents to not only monitor their kids' computer activity, but to also educate them about the risks of cyberspace.

Some of the tools you can use to help make your child's Web surfing safer and more productive include:

• parental controls or blocking options, which nearly all online service providers (OSPs) and Internet service providers (ISPs) offer

• blocking software, which prohibits or blocks access to designated sites based on a "bad site" list compiled by the parent and the ISP or OSP

• filtering software, which uses keywords to block sites containing certain words and phrases

• outgoing filtering, which restricts personal information - such as name, address, and phone number - from being sent online

• monitoring and tracking software, which records the length of time spent on the Internet, time of day, sites visited, and time spent offline

But the best filter and monitoring device is you - if you give your grade-schooler access to a computer during homework time, make sure it's in a common space, not in the bedroom. This way, you can keep an eye on what your child is doing and discourage playing games, chatting with or emailing friends, or surfing the Net for fun.

Also, just because a site advertises itself as a homework help site, doesn't necessarily mean that the information on it is accurate. To help ensure that your child is using the very best resources the Internet has to offer, bookmark some of your favorite homework help Web addresses (KidsHealth, for example) to give your child easy access to reliable information. And you may want to check your child's favorite sites to make sure that the information they're offering is correct and age appropriate.

It's also a good idea to talk to your child about plagiarism. Let your child know that it's never OK to copy information directly from a website - that the Internet should be used as a resource to help understand material being taught in class, not as a quick and easy way to complete assignments by using someone else's writing word for word.

Article by:

KidsHealth, The Nemours Foundation, USA

Reprinted with permission from:

KidsHealth.com