by CL Nelson

Created on: May 12, 2008

As a school teacher the question most parents ask me is, "How do I get Johnny to do his homework? He just won't do it. It's a battle every night." Well, prior to being a parent myself, I thought homework was easy. You, as devoted parents, set a routine time and place for little Johnny to do his homework. And little Johnny will happily and obediently put pencil to paper. Then after an hour or so, you, as the devoted parents, will sit down with little Johnny and review the homework together and hug. HA! That delusional fairy tale ended the day my daughter began bringing home her homework! I saw no happy face. I heard no obedient words. There were no hugs. Instead my mild manner child turned into a two headed monster with a waspish tongue. And let's face it, homework is tedious. How many of us adults, come home from work with homework? How many of us want to sit down after an eight hour day and dive into more work? So why do we expect our children to gladly and happily hop into homework?

Homework doesn't have to be a nightly battle of wills. It can be done with relative ease, most of the time. The tips I have are the same that I give the parents of my students, and they're the same ones I use with my own child.

Tip 1: Discuss, Decide, Draw. Before homework season begins, discuss as a family what the homework routine will be. Allow all family members to have input. Decided what the rules, rewards, and consequences for homework time are. Perhaps a reward is a sticker on the sticker chart (younger kids) or five extra minutes earned on a video game or staying up past Friday night bedtime. A consequence is a removal of a sticker or five less minutes on a video game. Then as a family draw up your homework routine, rules, rewards, and consequences and post it on the refrigerator or bulletin board.

Tip 2: Routine. Establish a routine for when and where homework will be done. Routines help children stay focused. They know what to expect. Plus routines prevent fewer battles of the wills from occurring. In my house, homework is sandwiched between food and fun. We eat dinner; do homework, and then a fun activity.

Tip 3: Choices! Sit down with your children and give them two homework assignments to choose from. Allow your children to choose which assignment they want to complete first. It's important that you, the parent, set the boundaries and give them two choices, instead of saying you choose what you want to do because we all know where that will lead-no homework completed.

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