Being a parent comes with a lot of responsibilities. One of them is, of course, schooling. Even if you don’t homeschool your children, you still should be involved with their education. Parents should help out their kids with school stuff, especially if the kids are struggling. However, there are numerous ways you can help out. More often than not, your help doesn’t have to be with homework as such. Sometimes, your children just need to upgrade their time management or organizational skills. Overall, a parent can be helpful to their kids in so many ways.
Here we have shared 6 homework tips for parents. Check out here how to help your child with homework without doing it for them.
Know your children’s teachers
The first and foremost homework tip for parents is, it won’t hurt to learn more about your kids’ teachers. This acquaintance goes both ways. Teachers feel better when they know their students’ parents. It shows that the adults in a child’s life really care about one’s education.
For you, knowing the teachers will give a better insight into what type of people they are. Hence, you can understand what these teachers value or expect from a student. Overall, just knowing if a teacher is a good fit for the job or not will already help you understand your child’s progress better.
Schedule study time
Having specific time for studying will only help your kid. First, together you can build a healthy and efficient schedule where your child has enough time for school, homework, friends, and hobbies. Having a schedule will help them navigate multiple activities. Thus, they are less likely to become overwhelmed or frazzled over everything they need to do in a week.
Also, having a proper schedule will ensure better self-care. Simply going to bed at the same hour every day will help reduce stress and improve your child’s sleep quality. Having to eat healthy food before doing homework will increase brain activity and improve focus and mood. Hence, try to build your child’s study time, so it also adjusts their needs and health.
Set a school plan
If you want to help your child with homework, help them to get ready for all their deadlines and important school dates. Make a study plan together. Dedicate a day or two, writing down all exam dates or essay deadlines. Making such a plan will help kids plan their time in advance. Hence, just doing the plan will enhance their time management and organization skills. Also, it will most likely release some of the tension off their shoulders. School can be a lot of stress, especially when you are bad with your timing. Having a plan will help your child see when it’s time to work and when to have some rest.
Don’t forget to add the vacation time, holidays, or important school days like a prom, dances, or else. Overall, map out the entire school year in a special calendar. This way, you and the kids will have a good visual of what to expect during the school year.
Remove distractions
You can do as little as to help your children focus when it’s homework time. So think of all the potential distractions your kid may have when studying. Their devices, for one, can cause a huge disruption to their study routine. Downloading a blocking app will help set a temporary pause for all the unnecessary functions and applications on one’s devices. This can be a great help for children with short attention spans. You and the kids will be surprised to see how much faster the work will go when there are no distractions on the way.
Grant rewards
Rewards are important. Don’t take any of your child’s success for granted. Studying can be hard. Being always on time with the homework requires a lot of discipline and skills. So why wouldn’t you want to appreciate all those efforts? Appreciation may be the biggest help you can give to your children. Show it with various rewards systems.
By the way, those rewards don’t have to be anything materialistic. You can simply promise more family time together on the weekend if there are no postponed papers left. Maybe, allow your child more gaming or Netflix time if they have good grades. Overall, think of the things that will motivate your children to work harder. Also, make sure those things will help kids to relax, unwind, and have some fun. Having a me-time is important to avoid burnout or any other mental disorders.
Be the example
Last but not least, if you want to help your child with homework, you should always lead the way as a parent. You have to set an example. So, anytime your child says, “Can you do my homework for me? I’m too tired/behind/etc.” think of where they learned that. You don’t want to be hypocritical around your child. So, for example, telling them about the importance of reading when you never have a book in your hands yourself does not look good, does it?
Thus, the main thing you can do is to be a great example. Show them that education matters. Explain to your kids that having ambitions will help them achieve greater results. Show them how you build a better tomorrow by doing the hard work today. Be the example they want to follow with pride.
