Homework Time

One thing that Jennifer has taught me, is to rethink homework time. I have let her show me what works best for HER! Yes, we still get her homework assigned by her teacher completed, but we "tweak" the assignment.

Tonight's homework included writing her spelling words five times each, reading her new story from her reading book and practicing this week's sight word list. Jennifer is able to copy words without problem, but with her spelling words I like to show her, visually, how many times to write her words.

Rather than having her just look at a list of spelling words and telling her to write her words five times. I show her what I want. I write each word in red ink and then follow it with five blanks. One blank for each time she is to write the word. She is usually able to complete this within five minutes.

We're just getting back from Christmas break and she's still wanting to see how much she can push Momma and Daddy Nick during homework time, but she CAN finish in five minutes or less.

I was at our son's academic team meet tonight and Daddy Nick was on homework duty. So, when it was time to read her new story Nick sat her down to read with him. We always read with the book right in front of Jennifer and with us giving her our undivided attention. We want her to know that this time is not only important for her, but also for us.

We read the story to her once and then she follows with reading the story to one of us. Sometimes she'll also want to climb into Bubba's lap to read to him too. She LOVES to read! For extra practice we read her new story before we go to bed and she reads it to me on the way to school the next morning.

Practicing sight words is a fairly simple task of just having her read the words to me from her list. We also go back and review words from old lists, even if she can already read the word independently.

Keep in mind that homework time is not time to argue with your child. If you find that she is struggling with an assignment, meet her where she is and work from there. Also, remember to make it fun. Yes, it may require you to think outside the box a little and spend extra time preparing for homework, but it's worth it.

Knowing that our homework strategies are helping Jennifer learn and preparing her for her tests at the end of each week is our goal. Making the homework less frustrating means that she is going to focus on the assignment better and be more likely to retain the knowledge she is learning.