Helping your elementary child manage homework.
Starting in Elementary School, children begin to receive homework. Some students get their homework for the week on Mondays, and some get homework assigned daily. Some homework is meant to be done that day, while others can be done later in the week. Regardless of the type of homework your child gets, they need help to stay organized.
Like a “family meeting,” a weekly homework planning meeting can help your child learn the important skill of planning, executing, and reflecting. These are essential skills for their future work.
Assuming your child gets the homework on Monday for the rest of the week, schedule your homework planning meeting on Mondays. Sit down with your child and use the step below to help your child plan and execute their homework.
List all the homework your child has to do and their deadlines.
If your child’s teacher did not organize the homework by day, you might need a weekly calendar to record all the tasks and deadlines. If you would like a template, you can find one “here.”
Determine a time or a sequence on when your child will do the work.
It can be a certain time of the day, such as 3:30 pm, or it can be a sequence. An example of a sequence would be:
get home,
have a snack
do homework for 10 minutes.
get a drink of water.
read for 20 minutes.
Determine the space where your child will do homework.
Suppose your child has a space that’s theirs. Set up a table for them to do homework there. If not, a designated chair at the dining table or space next to the parent’s desk. Ask your child if there is a space they would like to use to do their homework. Some families include a trip to the library on a particular day of their week and do homework there.
Prepare all the materials needed to do homework for the week during the planning meeting.
Part of the planning meeting should be about gathering materials your child needs so you and your child do not need to search for materials, which cuts into homework time. Materials can be a pencil case, multiple pencils, pencil sharpeners, coloring tools, or other required materials.
If you are helping your child focus for a specific duration, use a small timer that your child can operate.
Put the planning sheet for the week somewhere visible so your child can easily see what homework is assigned for each day of the week.
Your child will more likely complete their work on time if a reward is attached to executing the plan well. This could be extra play time, time with a parent, or doing something special on the weekends. Determine the reward ahead of time, and find a place to display the “scoreboard” so you and your child can track progress throughout the week.
Homework can be challenging, but it can be a little better if the child can anticipate what homework they need for the week. They do not need to spend their mental capacity each day determining what they need to do and where they will be doing their homework. So help your child plan out their homework.
If you can sit next to your child while they do their homework, and they see you make plans and execute them. They are likely to pick up the skills to use in the future. A student who can plan and execute is a student who can manage themselves independently. Help your child to be more independent by helping them plan their homework.
