Setting Your Child Up For Success

Fall is here and school is officially in session. As you settle back into the hustle and bustle of the school season, now is the time to create routines to set you and your child up for a successful year. While you might be thinking about a morning routine or scheduling after-school activities, it’s important that you don’t forget about homework time.
While homework might not be at the top of the list of fun activities, it serves an important purpose. We chatted with Special Educator, Amy Taft, to learn more about the benefits of homework and how you can set your child up for success.
Benefit of Homework
Complex Learners benefit from homework because it helps them to build skill fluency (think reading and math), learn responsibility, and practice crucial executive function skills such as time management and organization. Most importantly, completing a homework assignment can give a student additional time to master skills and concepts learned in class, helping to provide the review and repetition essential for a Complex Learner.
Homework Routines
While we know why it’s important to have Complex Learners do homework, that doesn’t make it any less challenging to convince them. A successful homework routine is critical in helping your child. This routine should be based on strategies that have already proven effective in the classroom and beyond.
Here are some important aspects to keep in mind.
Predictability
Homework does not have to be done at the same time every day, but it’s helpful for your child to know when homework will be done each day. For example, if your child takes swimming lessons on Monday afternoon, it might work best for homework to be done right after. But if they have a music lesson on Wednesday evening that will get them home late, it’ll probably be best for homework to be done before that. Try using a visual schedule to help your child understand their schedule for the day and specifically, the timing of homework. A visual schedule can help a child to be more independent with their day-to-day routine.
Timing
Too often parents try to do homework with their child at a time that works for the adult’s schedule. While we understand homework isn’t your favorite thing either, it’s important to consider factors that could impact your child’s success. If your child tends to lose focus as the day progresses, waiting until after dinner for homework (while more convenient for you) might actually result in a bigger struggle as your child will be less able to attend to the task at hand. If this sounds familiar, scheduling homework before dinner or right when they get home from school is more likely to be successful.
After a long day at school, you also don’t want to expect your child to jump right into homework. They need time to decompress to ensure they are in the right mindset to tackle homework. So, be sure to give your child time to relax after school (e.g., have some outside time, play with Legos, go to a music class or a sports activity). Ideally, homework should be finished before dinner. Otherwise, it can impact your end-of-day routine and make you and your child feel rushed and stressed. As an alternative, if you and your child are early risers and the work allows it (i.e., not a multi-step project), consider doing homework in the morning.
Location
Create a dedicated space for your child to do homework. Ideally, this should be a distraction-free location. Have the space fully stocked with any supplies that might be needed (markers, glue sticks, scissors, etc.). This will prevent your child from leaving the space to find materials and potentially getting distracted. Make the space inviting by providing ambient lighting with comfortable alternative seating. If the traditional desk and chair don’t work for your child, consider a bean bag chair with a lap desk instead.
Then think of what strategies your child benefits from in school. Fidgets, water bottle, chewing gum, low music? Make sure they have access to these when completing homework. Just like these strategies are used to set your child up for success in the classroom, the same can be done at home!
Homework Helper
As your child’s homework helper, you may find yourself unsure of your role. You want to support but not do the work for them. You want to help but you also want to encourage independence. The best routines are the ones where the expectations are clear to both the student and the homework helper. The homework helper should:
Create an Expectations Checklist
For example:
- Math Worksheet – Homework Helper helps with 1 or 2. Then, the child does the rest.
- 5-minute break
- 15 minutes of Reading – Choose a book. Get your stuffy. Set the timer and read to your stuffy for that time.
- Put your worksheet into your homework folder.
- Put your homework folder into your backpack.
Provide Guidance:
- Read the directions with your child.
- Do one or two items with your child.
- Have your child do two items on their own, then check for understanding.
- Have your child do the remainder of the items on their own.
- If there is a lot of difficulty, discontinue the activity and contact the teacher (they can’t make adjustments or offer help if they don’t know there’s a problem)
- Praise your child for doing the work independently.
With strategies in place and support, your child’s homework routine can help to set them (and you!) up for a great school year!
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