Interest, praise and support serve as additional homework helpers

Teaching Pre K-8, Nov/Dec 1997 by Kines, Barbara

Parents find that questions about homework recur, regardless of the age of their children. Helping Your Child with Homework, published by the U.S. Department of Education, offers a checklist: Make sure your child has: a quiet, well-lit place to work, established time each day for doing homework, basic supplies and items that help organize: folders, calendars, paper clips and "desk stuff."

Other ways to help: meet teachers early in the year and discuss homework policy. Review and discuss teacher comments on returned homework with your child. Nothing succeeds like success; praise for a job well done.

In her book, Keeping Kids Reading (Crown, 1997), Mary Leonhardt, a high school English teacher who holds graduate degrees in English, education and learning disabilities and has taught for 20 years, asked her students to write about homework in elementary school, middle school and high school. The following conclusions are based upon this assignment.

1. Don't make your children do homework. You'll get short-term gains, but the long-term cost is a loss of enthusiasm, creativity and competence in students' work.

2. Don't call teachers to check up on your children's work. This may lead to superficial work and encourage students to shirk their responsibility.

3. Show interest in children's studies and be available for help.

4. Make sure your child has time to study. Pressure from sports and other activities has students overscheduled and it's impossible to do quality work when they are exhausted.

5. Show support for academic efforts. Be enthusiastic about work children bring home to show you and attend school events.

6. Believe in your children. Cheer them on, remember that success breeds success. If they are doing well in outside activities, that self-esteem and energy may help academics.

7. Realize that school is only a very small part of your child's life. This is so important. I've read over and over again in our local paper about a high school student covered with glory, but whom I recall was once a befuddled and disorganized little child. Hang onto your perspective! There are many chapters yet to be written in your child's book of life.

Barbara Kines is a former teacher of kindergarten-primary grades. She is a Teaching Editor of Teaching K-8 and lives in Lutherville, MD.