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SALT LAKE CITY -- With the school year underway, parents might hear a lot of complaints about homework coming from their kids. But how can parents get their children into a good routine so they'll hunker down and do it?
Some educators say there's a paradigm shift among some teachers when it comes to homework. You may remember the day when your teachers individually assigned you an hour of homework for every class. If you got homework for most of your classes, you were looking at a few hours of extra work every night.
Huntington Learning Center Director Nancy Jones says, these days, homework seems to be more relevant to the material and less about doing numerous exercises.
(Ah, kids these days. They don't know how good they've got it.)
"It's not so much homework to give them something to do. It's not busy work," she said. Still, you don't hear a lot of excitement from children about doing it. Well, the kids don't have to be excited about homework, per se, as long as they get in a good habit of doing it every day.
Call it "study time"
For starters, don't call it "homework." Call it "study time." Kids might not like study time, but they hate homework.
"Study time is really a better name for it because as soon as you say ‘homework' that has such a negative connotation to that student who doesn't want to do it," Jones said.
Make a schedule
Jones also says it helps if the entire family plans when study time will be. Kids may be more inclined to follow the plan if they helped make it.
"Everybody sits down and makes up the schedule together," Jones suggested. "Nobody is given the schedule to follow because that's a definite deal breaker, right there. I tell you, ‘You have to do homework from 7 to 8 o'clock,' you're going to (sarcastically) say, ‘Yeah, right mom.'"
This schedule can include breaks and even time for the child to call friends if they need to. But parents have to stick to the schedule like clockwork.
"When that (break) time is over, there's a five minute warning and everybody goes back to studying," Jones said.
Everybody studies
Yes, she said "everybody goes back to studying," not just the child. She says parents need to be an example and use "study time" to study, as well. Adults could read a book, an instruction manual or anything else that they wish, but the television and video game consoles have to be off. These things are too much of a distraction for Junior.
Offer praise
It's also important to be positive and praise the child when you see they are progressing.
"If you see them get a math problem right that they've been struggling with, you're right there to say, ‘You know what, you did great on that problem. Why don't you show me how you did it?'"
She says it's best to leave the negativity and punishment aside. But, there are some children who will fight doing homework no matter what, so punishment becomes necessary. Jones says older kids may need to make a contract with their parents so that the child and the parents know what's expected this school year.
"The student knows what the consequence is, so there is no, ‘Why did you ground me? You're the most miserable parent alive. I'm going to run away,' because they already agreed to it," Jones said.
E-mail: pnelson@ksl.com
