I have a new e-book out today: 99 Ways to Get Your Kids to do Their Homework
(and Not Hate It): Updated and
Revised. It’s available on Amazon, and
should be available soon on all of the other e-book sites, like Barnes and
Noble and Apple. Here is the description
of it:
Is homework ruining your family life? Do you spend hours every day worrying about
how your children (and you) will ever get through the piles of homework that
schools are sending home now? There are
no magic bullets and no easy answers, but my commonsense advice will make the
whole process easier.
Since the main goal must be that children become independent
about managing homework, this book is full of suggestions about helping that to
happen. Chapters deal with issues from
preschool through high school. There is
also a section on gifted children.
Included is a greatly expanded Appendix, with interviews
with my high school students about their homework experiences. This is my favorite part of the book. I interview students who have been very
competent about completing homework, as well as students who have rebelled, and
done very little. There are interviews
with gifted students, and interviews with students needing special ed.
services.
Here is a sampling:
"Junior year started off about the same as other
years. I was playing football, but then
I got in trouble and I got kicked off the team.
That started a downward spiral.
Everyone was disappointed and I was more than everyone. It happened quickly. I just stopped caring, totally. I stopped doing assignments."
"I remember my dad read to me as a child, in English
and Chinese, every night. I shared a
room with my sister, and one night I was working my way through this book and
he was helping me, and my sister said, “Can you stop? I want to go to sleep.” And he said, “No, this is important. “There
was always the expectation that the homework needs to be done. "
"So at one point, when my older sister was in 9th
grade, I was in 6th grade, and my younger sister was in 3rd grade, my parents
made a designated “homework time. . . So we would all sit down at the kitchen
table, from 7-8:30 or so. Doing this
never improved my grades and never me focus better. It just made me annoyed with my parents for
being too controlling."
There are some tips I got from a friend on how to encourage my child to do his homework: give him a reason to do his homework and to enroll him in a tutorial class. Both have been very helpful, but the latter is the most effective. Not only does it benefit him with his studying, it gave him the chance to meet new friends.
ReplyDeleteDaniele Ickes
Good tip. Thanks!
DeleteMary