Encouraging Kids to Do Homework

There are some children who come home from school every day, sit down at their desk and do their homework. While these children should be commended, most kids want to play after school, whether it’s with their friends, video games or sports, they have more fun things to do. It’s fine for kids to play after school, but at some point their homework needs to get done. It’s an important part of the learning process. Homework reinforces information taught during the day. Some skills need to be practiced at home. Sometimes homework teaches additional skills not taught at school due to lack of time or resources. Thus homework is not just a nuisance.

There are many steps a parent can take to get his/her kids into a homework routine. Try these steps: Set boundaries and facilitate the homework process as much as possible. Provide a comfortable, well-lit, quiet, and non-distracting place for homework to be completed. Somewhere away from electronic items, pedestrian traffic, and other kids playing is ideal.

Make sure that your child has everything needed to do homework, from pens and paper, to a laptop and books, and be sure to get special project materials in advance, to avoid the excuse: “I don’t have what I need.”

At the beginning of  the school year, discuss how your child intends to handle homework in the coming months. This sets mutually shared ground rules for getting it done, ground rules that you can call on to remind them when they’re slipping, or to praise them for when they’re meeting them.

Let the kids feel they’re somewhat in charge by giving them the choice of when to do their homework—before dinner, after dinner, or half before and half after. The only rider on this is to refuse to allow homework to be left until just before bedtime—set an agreed upon cut-off point by which time homework must be completed; this can be sweetened by making allowance for enjoyable wind-down activity prior to bedtime. You can help by keeping the evening mealtime as regular as possible.

Find out if there are specific areas of homework they’re having difficulties with. Ask them if they need more with those issues. If you or a sibling are unable to help, consider a tutor.

Have your child do hard work first. This way, he/she will be most alert when facing the biggest challenges. The easier material will seem to go faster once fatigue begins to set in.

It’s best to praise work done well and ignore poor performance. It’s very easy to get annoyed about a failure and skip over the good stuff. However, focusing on the negatives is never a good idea. It will also help to remove the tension for you. Be careful when using rewards to spur homework completion. The aim is to rely principally on intrinsic motivators (satisfaction from a job completed) rather than material rewards. Bribing is the ultimate demotivating strategy because any kid who associates completing homework with a new game or an allowance increase learns to do the activity for material gain rather than internal gratification, or greater understanding. Occasional rewards for a special project done well can be a great boost, but regular material rewards are best avoided.

Shift the responsibility from you to your child. It’s absolutely vital that your child learns that the consequences for not completing homework rests solely on them, not on you. This is not the same as not caring at all. It is about taking a conscious approach to letting your kids learn to be responsible. Teachers are usually not very happy with students, if they don’t do homework. If your child flat-out refuses to do his work, then let him see what his teacher does the next day. He probably will do his homework after that!

Try to make your approach to their homework one of engaged curiosity, not of nosiness or trying to cross off every task as it’s done. Avoid asking your child for precise details of homework the moment he walks through the door. Allow him to relax for a few minutes first.

A great way to inspire younger kids to do homework is to do some homework of your own—to show your child that you’re being responsible and completing essential chores too. Show him that the skills he is learning are related to things you do as an adult. If your child is reading, you read too. If your child is doing math, balance your checkbook. If homework is meant to be done by your child alone, stay away. Too much parent involvement can prevent homework from having some positive effects. Homework is a great way for kids to develop independent, lifelong learning skills. Helping them in a very positive way will help them develop good homework habits thorough elementary, high school and college.