Did you read the article about that unicorn of a teacher who refused to give out homework? I did–and I cheered. If you missed it, there is a teacher, turned social media sensation, that sent home a letter proclaiming she would only send students home with the classwork they needed extra time to finish. I told you she was awesome!
Homework can be a trying experience and its benefits can be questionable. We have just begun our school journey and already experienced so many different styles of homework. Sometimes homework comes in a giant overwhelming weekly packet. Sometimes it’s a bingo board that looks fun but when you read it, it is labor intensive to get any of those rows knocked out (even with the “free” space). Sometimes, every day is a surprise: will there be homework or will there not be homework; who knows? The one thing we know for sure is when the homework is in the folder, it will be due the next day.
Sometimes you learn the homework being sent home is not at all connected to what your child learned in school that day. Y’all, that’s a true story. They are all true stories and I have so many more. I am betting that your little has pulled at least one of those little gems out of his/her backpack. If not, it’s coming. Don’t panic, but it is totally coming. While we can’t decide what type of homework our children bring home, we can be prepared for anything. Here are my tips to survive homework howlers and nightmares
Learn to Love it
Here is the really crazy part, the part where I may lose you; but I hope you stick with me. I love doing homework with my children … even when it is crazy, too inconsistent, the teacher doesn’t grade it, or it is extremely rigid with no real academic purpose. Why? It boils down to understanding one thing. While we as parents cannot define what type of homework our children are assigned, we can be proactive about what the homework means to our child and our family. There is no better gauge of how your child is feeling about what he is learning than watching him interact with his homework. It’s a great time for children to decompress and share.
While we are working on homework, I hear a lot about what they did during the day. Even when your little one is stressed about something, when you are doing work together at home, you can help them manage those feelings and plan to deal with it. Homework time can be a beautiful window into your child’s scholastic journey. I know it sounds sappy, but intentional homework can be wonderful.
Have a Homework Spot
Creating a sense of calm and readiness is the foundation of learning to enjoy homework. Our homework spot is our kitchen table. It gets terrific afternoon light and the kids are always hungry after school. The kitchen is just a natural and convenient place for us to be. There is also ample space for everyone to work without having to move anything. We just sit down and get right to it. Equally as important to having space to work is making sure you have a space to tuck it all away and be done with it. In our house we use our family entry way. The kids’ calendars and backpacks all have spots where they can be tucked away until it’s time to head to class the next day.
Develop A Routine
If the space is the foundation of loving homework, creating a routine is like raising the walls. Creating a relaxed routine that fits the rhythm of your family will help get you through those days that are just hard to find the motivation or energy. Our routine is to get homework done right away. As soon as we get home, the children put their backpacks up and pull out their work folders. They bring them to the kitchen table while I am getting our afternoon snack together. We enjoy snacking and conversation while we get to our tasks. What if there is no homework in the folder? If there isn’t homework in the folder, we still journal or color. Once we are done, we pack up our backpacks and glorious freedom is ours. The school day is officially closed and we can get to our afternoon. It’s a wonderful feeling and a great way to transition from school to home.
Make Planning a Priority
Helping your child learn to prioritize their work and plan is like adding a roof to the foundation and walls built in the previous two tips. At our house, after school feels like a mini-morning. Everybody is just a bit tired from the day. This can make jumping back on task a challenge. That’s another reason we have a snack while we work. A huge pile of work can be overwhelming for anyone. If your child has lots of homework, multiple subjects due at once, or if you get a single homework packet on Monday that is then due on Friday, looking at that pile of paper can completely de-rail your child’s success. Develop a strategy for how to sort out what work to do first.
If you know your whole week in advance, I recommend you and your child plan the whole week on Monday. If you have what I lovingly call “the mystery homework folder” and you don’t know what you are going to find from one day to the next, you can still establish a routine for planning. At our house, when this is the case, we have a check list. We look at the contents of the folder, decide what we want to do first, second, third and so on, and then we get to work. Whether by the week or by the day, when you learn to divide work into digestible bits before jumping in, your completion rate and speed will benefit.
Stick Together
We all sit down together to do homework. For my littles, they are still very much at a hands-on stage with homework; I am available to work with them, but I still bring my blogging notebook to the table and write while they are doing independent portions their work. Helping and encouraging each other is the norm. We talk about what we are working on and ask for help when we need it. I make a point to share when I feel stumped by something and we work through it together. Take breaks as needed. My little ones are small, so we take little wiggle breaks every 15 minutes. I have a bunch of popsicle sticks on which I have written fun and silly wiggle-break prompts that really take the edge of challenge homework days.
Homework time isn’t over until everyone is finished. When each of us is done, we can grab a book, journal, or color; but the afternoon party doesn’t get started until our whole crew has their backpacks ready for the next day. And believe me, when we finish, we CELEBRATE!
In a perfect world, homework would always make sense and always be about growing a child’s understanding of academic content; but we don’t live in a perfect world. The great news is that even when homework is a nightmare and has us as parents stumbling to understand its value, we can make it valuable by teaching our children how to manage the chaos of it all.
