5 Parent (and Kid) Approved Ways to Make Homework Bearable

Written by Emily Graham at Mighty Moms 

There’s no denying it, homework simply isn’t fun. Kids were meant to run, jump and play, not to be tied down to a desk for eight to 12 hours per day. While there are many outspoken advocates that claim excessive homework is a health hazard, even young children continue to receive three times the amount of recommended homework.

 It doesn’t appear that homework is going away anytime soon, however. As a parent, you can make this unpleasant task less of a chore and give your children a positive experience that may help overcome the negative impact of an after-hours academic load. Here are five ways to make homework a less painful part of your family’s routine:

1. Make learning fun. Some students naturally gravitate toward any learning experience. Others may need some convincing. Help your children identify ways their least favorite topics – often math and/or reading – can be used for recreational purposes. Play games that require counting, spelling, or a combination of the two. Scrabble, chess and Yahtzee can reinforce the skills. You can apply scientific principles to playtime, too. EarthScienceJr.com lists several outdoor learning activities and fun science experiments including creating Rainbow Magic Milk that are appropriate for kids of all ages.

2. Reward minute for minute. If your child struggles to find the focus needed to get their homework done, consider offering a reward for each minute of time spent actively engaged in the homework process. Avoid the temptation to use video games as a reward and instead focus on family-oriented activities that get the kids off the couch. Camping, hosting a backyard treasure hunt and even bird watching are ways your kids can create positive memories that they’ll associate with homework. If your child spends 30 minutes each afternoon on the books, then you should spend 30 minutes outdoors together as a family. You can wrap up a particularly stressful week with a backyard campout complete with ghost stories and s’mores.

3. Take a break. Oxford Learning suggests taking regular breaks to increase homework productivity. This will help to boost focus, reduce stress and help kids retain more information. But there is a right way and a wrong way to step away from the pencil. Students should be allowed to take 5- to 10-minute breaks every half hour. These breaks should involve some form of physical activity and possibly, a drink or snack. 

4. Do your own homework. You may have gotten away from mandatory homework when you graduated college but, no matter your age, learning is never a bad thing. Whether you want to advance your career or simply broaden your horizons of knowledge, sit down with your child and do your own “homework” by their side. Not only will this reduce the feelings of isolation your child might feel but will also give them an opportunity to see their parents working toward a goal. And if you find yourself struggling to master a new skill or understand newly introduced concepts, let them see the struggle. MIT recommends letting your kids watch you overcome obstacles will help them embrace a growth mindset.

5. Reward a job well done. The kids have been at school all day and sometimes they need a little extra motivation to keep going. Whether you choose to use positive feedback or a more tangible reward is a personal choice and depends on your child. While experts disagree over the use of stickers and trinkets as motivation, setting up a rewards system is a great way to encourage positive behaviors until they become routine.

Despite the many naysayers, the vast majority of educators believe that reasonable amount of homework, even for students as young as first grade, offers numerous benefits. Scholastic points out that homework offers parents an opportunity to engage a child’s education, allows students to make a connection between classroom learning and the real world and promotes self-discipline and independence. Whether you agree or not, it still has to get done, you may as well make the best of it.

Summer Fun to Boost Executive Functioning Skills

Executive functioning skills are the “soft skills” that are seldom explicitly taught to children; however, they are essential to completion of tasks and demonstration of knowledge. They are also essential to successful social interactions and daily living.

The summer, when we spend more time with our kids and engage in novel and interesting activities, is the perfect time to encourage the development of executive functioning skills. Family activities, social situations, and games can all be orchestrated to foster skills like self-monitoring, response inhibition, working memory, task initiation, and planning and prioritizing.

Harvard’s Center on the Developing Child recommends role playing, imaginary play, and storytelling to develop executive skills in pre-school-aged children. Learning to take turns and mimicking mature tasks help children get ready to meet the social and attentional demands of kindergarten. Singing songs that repeat and add, change, or delete words, like B-I-N-G-O and Wheels on the Bus, help develop working memory. Matching and sorting activities, increasingly challenging puzzles, and cooking encourage working memory, planning, and sustained attention. 

Reading and visits to the library are perfect for those hot summer days by the pool or enjoying the cool of indoor. Ellen Galinsky and her colleagues at Mind in the Making have created lists of books and accompanying tip sheets that promote focus and self-control, perspective-taking, communicating, making connections, critical thinking, taking on challenges, and self-directed engaged learning. The book lists include selections for children age birth through 12 years.

Games of all sorts, and designed for all ages, can promote various executive skills while increasing family time and decreasing screen time. Word and language games, such as Fannee Doolee, are especially adaptable to travel and situations that require waiting. The professionals at Understood provide us with 7 Tips for Building Flexible Thinking, which includes directions for this clever game.

Another list of activities for kids and teenagers can be found at Left Brain Buddha. Games like Simon Says require response inhibition and attention, while card games like Uno require working memory and attention. To engage and entertain teenagers, try games like Taboo and Apples to Apples that require complex thinking and impulse control.

Harvard’s Center on the Developing Child and Left Brain Buddha agree that games of strategy, like Risk, are especially valuable in developing planning, prioritizing, and other executive skills. Michelle and Kira at Sunshine and Hurricanes have created a list of the best board games for teenagers, actually chosen by teenagers.

So, whether your family is traveling around the world; playing word games and I Spy in the car or at the airport; planning a staycation that includes trips to the library and playing board games together; or maintaining the status quo with daily meal preparation, playdates, and sleepovers, there are always ways to incorporate executive skills development into the summer months. Your kids will be better prepared for the social and academic demands of school in the fall, and they might discover a new pastime in the process!   

Written by: Kerrilee W.

Resources:

Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University (2014). Enhancing and Practicing Executive Function Skills with Children from Infancy to Adolescence. Retrieved from www.developingchild.harvard.edu.

Mind in the Making website: www.mindinthemaking.org  

Understood.org: https://www.understood.org/en

Left Brain Buddha: the modern mindful life: http://leftbrainbuddha.com/

Sunshine and Hurricanes: smart parenting with purpose: https://www.sunshineandhurricanes.com/

Oxford University Press: Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience: https://academic.oup.com/scan

Attention Deficit Disorder Association: https://add.org/