We All Have Homework
Posted by Susan Epstein on September 27th, 2010 at 10:22am
Insist that homework is your child’s responsibility and not yours. You don’t need to sit down next to your child when they are doing their homework but you do need to be available (and available means that you could be making dinner or you could be sitting with your laptop across from them doing your own work.)
What to say:
- “I am going to work while you work. We all have “homework”.
What Could Happen:
- If your child says, “Mommy, I can’t do it, I need your help”, then go and sit next to your child and read the directions again with him out loud. Take one step at a time, have him do the problem and explain it to you out loud.
- Watch your child do the next problem by himself to make sure that he understood. If he gets stuck, go through the steps again and show your child you how he can do it on his own. This way he will not be relying on you for every detail.
Tags: calm parenting, Children, consistent parenting, homework, Parenting advice teens, parenting powers, susan epstein, teens
Under Teens/Tweens
2 Comments for We All Have Homework
1. elizabeth rozeboom | September 28th, 2010 at 8:36 am
It appears that our 12 year old (adopted out of foster care) has a fear of failure, so that when he doesn’t understand his homework, and I try to explain it, it says, “I know how to do this, I can do it on my own.” At a glance, I can see that he does NOT know how to do it. How would you handle this? Or he says all the assignments are complete, but then the teacher says they are missing.
2. Susan Epstein | September 28th, 2010 at 8:46 pm
Ask him to explain to you how to do the homework, instead of you explaining to him. Set up a checklist where before he gets to use computer or watch TV, you sign off on the completed homework. Always praise him for the effort…not for the grade. “You have worked so hard on this assignment, it really shows.”
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