DOES YOUR CHILD HATE HOMEWORK?

This segment was written by Dr. John Juern, who is a WELS member.

In many families the simple question, “Is your homework done?” or the brief statement, “Go do your homework” begins an evening of conflict and emotion. Unfortunately, many families are unable to do any activities until they see how much homework their child has and can estimate how long it will take them to complete it. The following suggestions are not for all children. If your child is doing well with homework, don’t fix it—it’s not broken. These suggestions are for those children, who, along with their parents, struggle through homework every evening. These suggestions will also be very helpful for those children who have an attention deficit disorder.

Establish a Mandatory Study Time (MST). The MST is a specific amount of time set aside for studying. The time will vary according to grade, but the following should be considered: Lower grades—30 minutes, Middle grades—45 minutes, and Upper grades 60 minutes. The purpose of the MST is to place some organizational structure on the child and to help him realize that studying requires time.
The MST is to be set up on Monday-Thursday nights. As much as possible, the MST is to be done at the same time on the same day. On Monday’s it may be done right after school because there is Karate after supper while on Wednesday it may be done after supper because there is basketball practice after school. They key factor is not when it will be done, but rather that it will be done at consistent, predictable times.
It is during the MST that home work is done. But if the child has left his books at school, forgot what the assignment was, or even has no homework, there is still the MST. Again, the purpose is to teach the child to dedicate a specific amount of time to studying. The reason for having the MST even when the child has no homework, is to take away the incentive to rush through work at school so as not to bring any books home.
For many children the best place for their MST is at the kitchen or dining room table and not in their room. By having them work at the kitchen table, the parent is able to “eyeball” what they are doing. For some children, going to their room to do their homework is not a good idea. They may go into their room and become sidetracked by all the things in their room and a half hour later have only their name at the top of the paper.
At the beginning of the MST, plan out the order in which the assignments are to be done. For children who have problems with homework, it is better to do the easiest things first and save the hardest for last. Hopefully doing the easy things first will develop a sense of accomplishment and build some positive momentum. If you start with the hardest things first, all the effort and emotion are spent on that and now even the easy things are hard because frustration with homework has set in.
When the child is ready to start the MST, it is wise for the parent to do some structuring or goal setting. For example, the parent might say, “Michael, while I go down and put a load of clothes in the dryer, I want you to write out these ten sentences for language.” Using this type of approach will help organize their efforts. Most of the children who have difficulty getting their homework done have poor organizational skills.
For those children who have significant problems with their work recognition skills and are slow readers, they will have a lot of difficulty with reading assignments in social studies and science. To help them get through that material in spite of their weaker reading skills, share the reading with them. You may read several paragraphs to them and then they read a paragraph. The fact is, you don’t want to penalize a child in social studies because of his weaker reading skills. Also, for children who have problems with remembering what they read, have them do their reading out loud. Most children will have better comprehension of what is read out loud.
For most children, it is best if the parent not sit down at the table and work with the child. If you begin to do that, after a short while the child makes an association between doing homework and someone sitting with them at the table. Then they believe they are unable to do their work unless someone is sitting with them at the table.
While all the previous suggestions are going on, provide a lot of verbal praise and encouragement. Compliment work completed or efforts at completing work. “I’m really glad to see that you have been working on these math problems for the last twenty minutes.” Hollering and yelling do not work. You may accomplish more by praising good behavior than by criticizing bad behavior.