How To Get Your Children To Do Their Homework Every Time

Author: Bonnie Terry, M. Ed.

Which of the following applies to you when you are helping your children with their homework?

• Sometimes your child procrastinates about doing their homework
  
• Sometimes you do more of the homework than your child does
  
• Sometimes your child spends hours and hours doing homework
  
• Sometimes your child knows they have an assignment, but can't remember what it is

Do any of these additional problems also apply to you?

• You have no idea how to help them because you haven't worked with multiplying fractions in years
  
• Your children need help with term papers, tests, and other projects and you are at a loss at how to help them
  
• You feel like you are going through the 4th, or 5th, or 10th grade twice - once at 9, 10, or 15 years old and now as an adult

There are simple steps that can be taken to rid your family of the homework wars forever. The following problems and solutions are excerpted from The Secrets To Stopping the Homework Wars and To Getting Your Children To Do Their Homework Every Time.

Problem: Your child procrastinates about doing their homework

Solution:

When:
Establish daily homework time. Give your child limited choices. Offering them choices gives the child a stake in their work. It gives them a sense of control over themselves. Only give them choices that are acceptable to you.

How Long:
Ask your child how much time they think they need to do their homework: 45 minutes or an hour? Asking your child how long they think it will take them to complete his/her homework helps them to realize that it won't take them all night to do it.

Where:
Ask them if they would like to sit at the kitchen table, work in the family room, or in their bedroom to do their homework. It is a good idea to suggest study areas where your child will be comfortable and distraction free. The place they do their work isn't as important as the fact that it is away from distractions.

No homework:
If your child doesn't have any homework, that time can be set aside for reading a book or some other learning activity. It is important to have your child doing some sort of reading or learning activity when they don't have homework. This establishes a pattern of learning that you are creating, and also to open the world of self-learning to your child.

Problem: Your child stays up too late to do their homework

Solution:

Most of the time, if your child has adhered to the set homework time, this will not be a problem. The difficulty occurs when either evening activities interfere with homework time, or a large project has been assigned. Students in the elementary grades typically need help with time management skills. As parents we need to remember this. When we take into account this factor it is easier to help our children learn to divide projects into smaller sections and to schedule time to do them. Using a daily and weekly planning calendar with after school and evening hours on it helps. A comprehensive easy to use planner for elementary and middle school students is in Ten Minutes to Better Study Skills.

I have taken my 30 years of experience as an educator, an educational therapist, a learning disability specialist, and my 25 years of experience of being a mom and developed a comprehensive report called The Secrets To Stopping the Homework Wars and To Getting Your Children To Do Their Homework Every Time. As a service to the readers of Parent Pals, I am offering this report and it will give you step-by-step ways to solve homework wars. This report normally sells for $19.95. The first 50 Parent Pals readers that respond will receive this report free. To receive this valuable report go to http://www.bonnieterry.com/reports_hw.cfm and I'll rush it to you. You can also request this report via phone: 530.888.7160 or fax: 530.745.9732.

Bonnie Terry, M. Ed., Auburn Educational Therapist and Author is a nationally recognized expert in the field of Learning Disabilities. She can be reached at 530.888.7160. In addition to the games and books she authors, she is a national speaker and contributes articles to national education journals.