Tips to make homework time easier.
How much help should a parent actually give their child with their homework?
If your little one is sitting at the table and becoming more and more frustrated it can be difficult to not wade in and take over. However if you are providing your child with the answers it is not enabling them to problem solve and could actually hinder their progress. If your youngster is struggling though at staying focused you can help with a few of these helpful tips below.
Tips to make homework time easier.
- Allocate a definite time each day and stick to it to complete homework, and be in full agreement to avoid any conflicts.
- Choose a place that is comfortable for your child to sit down for example a desk or the kitchen table, and it should be free of any distractions like the T.V providing the perfect ambience.
- Encourage your child to work on their own and ask for help if needed, make sure they take out their homework diary, books and pencils so everything is at hand.
- Overlook their work and let your child know if they have made any mistakes, and let her correct them with your help. Check their homework diary daily and sign it off, being involved in their work will alert you to any issues that may occur.
- If your child is really struggling with a certain area of their work and cannot grasp it with your help, write to your child’s Teacher asking him/her to run through it again with your child.
Although homework can be annoying for a kid when they are dying to get outside to play there are benefits to homework.
- It enables your child to work independently and allows them to learn how to manage and organise their work. They have to learn to overcome challenges set by their Teacher and have a plan and strategy’s in place to complete work.
- It connects school to home and lets parents see their child’s progress and abilities. Without homework parents would be in no way involved in their kids learning and may miss out on achievements or obstacles.
- It teaches your child to revise work done at school and in the future will help with the transition from primary to secondary school were a huge amount of studying must be done.
As a parent of school going children our role according to NCCA (National Council for Curriculum and Assessment) is to encourage your child’s homework, observe their homework and finally look over their finished work and sign it off in the homework diary.
So next time your child comes home with a load of homework and they are making numerous mistakes, allow them to figure it out alone and help them but avoid taking over.
We forget that children are hugely intelligent and their brains are like sponges and they soak up information easily. By going to school they are learning how to cope with lessons and different subjects, they will struggle with some and excel at others and that is perfectly ok.
Also we already did our time in school, I sure don’t want to go through it all again!!
