HOMEWORK
How to Motivate Your Child

Homework can be an important tool to help children review and practice the skills taught in school and can improve their learning. In addition, homework can help enhance children’s personal growth by teaching them responsibility, independent work habits, organization, and time management. However, when problems arise, homework can be quite disruptive to family life by creating parent-child conflict and interfering with other important family priorities, such as recreation and social activities. One of the more common homework problems reported by parents is poor motivation, particularly in families with children with learning or attention deficit disorders. Children who are described as motivated to do homework do it by themselves, begin and complete it on time, actively participate in checking it, respond well when told to correct it, pay attention during it, and stick with it even when it gets difficult. When children display problems with any of these areas of homework, they are frequently described as being unmotivated. The tips described below are specific strategies and techniques parents can use to motivate their children to successfully do their homework on time and on their own.

Tip #1: Provide well-lit work area, equipped with needed supplies

You can support your child’s efforts to complete his homework by providing him with the right workspace at home. A good work area is one that has adequate space, is well lit, has the needed supplies (see list to right) and is relatively free from distractions.

Tip #2: Control and limit meaningful distractions

One of the benefits of homework is that it can help children develop their skills in organization and managing their time. Homework can interfere with important social and recreational activities if the child does not plan ahead. Teach your child how to make both daily and weekly schedules for her activities (see figure below). On a daily basis, have your child decide what needs to be done that day and when to do it. This should include a listing of all homework assignments and other activities and responsibilities. It is often a good idea to decide ahead of time on the order of homework assignments, sandwiching the harder assignments in between the easier assignments. At the beginning of the week, it is helpful to list out all the activities for the coming week. This will help your child plan. For example, if your child has a Social Studies test on Wednesday and she needs two days to study for it, she can plan on bringing her Social Studies book home Monday and Tuesday nights.

Tip #4: Find out how much and how often homework is expected

In order to effectively monitor your child’s homework you need to know what to expect. Check with your child’s teacher about the school’s homework policy and find out how much and how often homework is expected at your child’s grade level. Based on surveys of students and teachers from across the country, you should expect your child to have some homework to do each week. You should expect the number of nights and the amount of homework to increase as your child progresses from elementary to high school (see table below). If your child is spending more or less time than is expected on homework, check with your child and the teacher to find out why.

Tip #6: Be supportive and encouraging, avoid criticism and punishment

Your general approach with your child around homework should be positive. Avoid using criticism or punishment to try to get your child to do her homework, these strategies will work against what you are trying to accomplish in the long run. You want your child to approach new challenges with confidence in her abilities, to have a feeling that she has control over her learning, and to be proud of her accomplishments. These goals are accomplished through being supportive and encouraging over time. When problems arise, your job should be to understand the problem and come up with solutions.

Tip #7: Praise efforts and independence

Parents should make a special effort to give their children frequent praise for the effort that they put into homework and their attempts to work independently. Praise effort and independence, even if they don’t get everything correct the first time. A general rule for using praise is to do it often, immediately, and powerfully. A powerful praise is one that is given in a warm tone of voice and includes a statement letting the child know what it is you are please with. For example, "I really like how you worked hard on your homework tonight! And you did it all by yourself! I am very proud of you!" Frequent praise that is related directly to children’s effort and independence can produce in them positive emotions, confidence, and an increased sense of control over learning. When this happens, children are likely to independently put forth effort and persist at new learning challenges.

Tip #8: Monitor your child’s daily homework

Tip #9: Check your child’s completed homework for neatness and accuracy and give feedback

When the assignment is done, check it for neatness and accuracy. Messy work should be redone. If errors are found, have your child correct them. For younger children, show them which items are incorrect and have them correct them on their own. As they get older, you can give them more general feedback. For example, you can tell your child how many errors you found on a page or in a set of items, without telling her which ones are incorrect, and have her find and correct them on her own. This will give your child practice in proofreading and checking.

Tip #10: Communicate with the teacher

• When your child does not know how to do homework assignments. Homework should focus on simple skills and on the integration of skills that the student already possesses. Homework should not be used to teach complex skills. When your child has problems with understanding how to do an assignment, it may be that the assignment requires skills that your child has not yet mastered. It could also indicate that your child is having problems in class, such as problems with paying attention or learning a particular skill.

• When your child is spending too much time with homework. Too much homework can demoralize your child and interfere with other family priorities, such as recreation, social activities, and parent-child relationships. If your child is consistently spending too much time on homework, check and see if he is bringing home work that should be completed during school hours. This may be an indication of a problem with your child’s classroom performance. As a general rule, class work should be completed in class. If your child is consistently not getting his work done in class, the school may need to provide classroom modifications or other services to address the problem. If your child is making good use of his time during homework and is able to successfully complete the work, but it is more time than the teacher expects, ask the teacher to consider reducing the workload.

Tip #11: Use a Goal Setting Strategy