With demands at schools increasing rapidly, many kids are receiving more complex and challenging assignments and projects. It can be tempting to immediately jump right in and help your child tackle this work, without giving her the opportunity to try it on her own. Yet homework can offer a multitude of benefits when your child completes it alone: it can help her become more self-sufficient and independent, and can give her the the extra practice needed to fully grasp new material. Encourage your child to become more independent and complete her homework on her own with the ideas detailed below.

Set up a distraction-free study space

‎When kids come home from school and sit down to begin their homework, they are often overwhelmed with distractions. There are tablets, computers, and phones; background noises; a kitchen filled with snacks; and so many other temptations. Help your child avoid these distractions and better focus on school work by setting up a well-lit, distraction-free work area. Your child might prefer to work on a desk in his room, on a table in the dining room, or in another quiet space of his choosing. Just make sure you designate that area as his “homework space” and load it with all the supplies he may need – pens, pencils, looseleaf paper, scissors, highlighters, and so on, so he doesn’t need to rummage for supplies when he needs it. Also encourage him to have a snack before he begins his homework so stomach rumbles don’t distract him from the task at hand. Additionally, you should make sure there is ample light, technological devices are powered off unless needed for homework, and the area is as quiet as possible.

Teach her study skills

Some students naturally develop effective study skills. They figure out how to take notes, complete their homework in an organized fashion, and ‎manage their time, all on their own. Other students, however, need guidance for developing stronger study skills. Teach your child to open her assignment book as soon as she is ready to begin her homework. She should make sure ALL assignments are written down; if they are not, she should immediately call a friend or check her school’s online portal (if her school has one) to determine which assignments are due, in both the near and far term. If she has any long-term assignments or projects to complete, teach her to break each one down into steps, and write each step into her planner. If she has a test to study for, she should do the same – break the studying into smaller steps (complete a study guide, create note cards, re-read book chapters, etc.) and put each one of those steps in her planner. You can also teach her to prioritize the tasks she has due. If she has five assignments to complete, for instance, she may want to work on the harder, more arduous ones first (and label them 1, 2, etc.), then move on to the shorter, less taxing ones, and so on. Teaching your child time management, prioritization, and homework management skills will help her become a more effective and efficient student.

Help him get started

Many students are perfectly capable of completing their homework on their own but simply have trouble getting started. Say your child has an essay to write on why he does or does not like winter. He may be stuck on where to begin. If so, help him start by brainstorming. He can draw a circle in the center of a page and write the word “winter” in it. Then he can branch out on the top side of the bubble with smaller bubbles detailing why he DOES like winter‎ (skiing, snowboarding, sledding, etc.), then branch out with additional small bubbles below the middle bubble containing reasons why he does NOT like winter (cold, short days, stuck inside, etc.). He can then decide which reasons (top or bottom) are more powerful, choose a stance, and begin to write his essay from there – on his own. Sometimes getting started is the most challenging part of assignments!

Give her praise!

If your child completes even a small assignment on her own, without your help, give her praise! Make sure your praise is specific to the task at hand, like, “I’m so proud of you for completing that reading comprehension assignment. You did it all on your own, and you should feel very proud of yourself.” Even a small victory like that, and just a touch of praise, can build her self-confidence and encourage her to try tackling more assignments on her own. You can also try integrating rewards. If she completes ten assignments on her own without your help, for instance, she might earn a trip to the movies or ice cream store. Help make homework a postive, self-fulfilling experience and your child will be more inclined to try completing her work on her own.

As students move through school, they will inevitably receive an increasing amount of homework. By teaching your child to complete assignments on his own at a young age, you will help him become an independent, self-sufficient, and successful student.

The post When Do You Let Your Kids Do Homework on Their Own? appeared first on EBL Coaching.

A new school year has officially started and with it comes many fresh starts: new classrooms, new teachers, new books, and perhaps even new friends. Some students, however, carry with them old habits of losing papers, forgetting important books, and neglecting to turn in their work. Help your child create a stronger back-to-school routine and avoid these organizational woes with the ideas detailed below.

Establish a Homework Routine
Setting up a regular homework routine at the start of the school year is a key component of organizational success. Some children enjoy completing their homework as soon as they get home, to “get it over with” and move on to more “fun” activities. Others need a small snack and are then ready to work, while many kids need a few hours to fully wind down before they are ready to work again. The key is to help your child determine a routine that works for him, then keep it consistent. Do what you can to help him stick with this routine. For instance, if he prefers a small snack before getting to work, try to have that snack ready for him as soon as he walks in the door. If he prefers to eat dinner before working, aim to have dinner ready at the same time each day. Consistency is key, as it will ultimately help him maintain his homework routine.

Set Up a Study Area
Help your child to create a clean, well-organized study area where she completes her homework on a regular basis. This could be a desk in her bedroom, the kitchen table, a study desk in another room, or the like. This study area should be stocked with all the supplies she may need to complete her work – pens, pencils, loose leaf paper, highlighters, a sharpener, and so on. Help her organize the supplies into labeled containers or sections within drawers so that every item has a home. As the supplies quantities dwindle, be sure to refill them right away to avoid any unnecessary distractions in trying to look for these items.

Maintain an Organized Assignment Book
Many students, especially those with executive functioning challenges, think they can remember all of their homework assignments and feel no need to write them down. Others use an assignment book only sparingly. Yet as students move through school and the workload increases, it becomes imperative that they learn to write down their assignments on a regular basis. Help your child develop stronger homework management skills and avoid missing assignments with this strategy: in his assignment book, he should create five columns for each day: ET (estimated time), AT (actual time), O (Order), D (Done), and Assignments (which should be the widest column). When he is at school, the only place where he should write down his assignments is in the assignment column. When he gets home and begins his work, he should start by looking at each assignment and deciding how long he thinks he each one will take – then write the ET, or estimated time, for each one in the ET column. Based on these estimated times, he should decide which assignment he wants to work on first, second, etc., and write the numbers (1,2,3, etc.) in the O column. Once he completes each assignment, he should write the AT, or actual time each one took to complete (usually in the beginning there is a big discrepancy between the ETs and ATs but as he practices this strategy, the times will start to merge as he becomes more realistic with his time). Finally, once the assignment is done *and put in the right place to be turned in* he should place a check mark in the D column. This strategy can help him develop stronger time management, organization, planning, and homework management – skills that are essential for school success.

Learn to Prioritize
As students progress through school, they receive an increasing amount of assignments and projects. Help your child manage this rising workload by teaching her to prioritize and organize her assignments. For instance, a project that consists of researching, creating note cards, outlining, writing, and self-editing can seem overwhelming at first. To help ease her anxiety, look at the assignment with her and help her break down the large project into smaller, more manageable steps. Then assign a due date to each step and have her enter them into her assignment book with completion dates connected to each one. In doing so, she will feel calmer and more in control of her workload, and will feel successful as she completes each step.

At Home Organizational System
As the school year progresses, the quantity of papers students receive seems to multiply, and many students leave this growing pile of (often crumbled) papers inside their backpacks or stuffed into their notebooks. Help your child develop an effective filing system to avoid this overload of papers. Try this 2-tier system: Tier 1 is his active note book, or the note book he carries to school with him on a regular basis. Tier 2 is an accordian file that stays at home and consists of three sections for every class: homework, notes, and tests/quizzes (math homework, math notes, math test/quizzes; science homework, science notes, etc.). He should designate once day per week to be his “clean out my active notebook day,” where he goes through his active notebook and removes any papers he doesn’t absolutely need to be carrying with him on a regular basis. He should file them into the appropriate section of his accordion file. Then, as quizzes or tests come up at a later date, he will know precisely where to find these important papers. As a result, he will be more organized, empowered, and in control of his paperload.

‎Starting a new school year can feel overwhelming for some students. Yet with these back-to-school ideas, your child will start the year feeling organized, confident, and ready for success.

The post How to Help Your Child Establish a Homework Routine appeared first on EBL Coaching.