Family life and homework

Maintaining happy families – how to avoid the homework fights!

From her very first reading book to her A Level essays, your daughter will have work to do at home, but how best to help her without it becoming the all too familiar burden that can blight the whole family’s evenings and weekends?

Bearing in mind that perhaps your daughter has a long journey, she needs to eat and have time for other interests-and time to “flop”- and there are family commitments that need to be fitted in – how can you make homework work for her and for you?

As with many things as a parent, you need to perform a balancing act-to be supportive but not to interfere!

• Remember, each of us works differently. Some like to get work out of the way and then relax, others work better if they’ve had chance to relax first. If your daughter is one of the latter, no amount of nagging will get her to work efficiently before she’s had chance to relax.
• Ensure she has an appropriate place to work-and, yes, curled up on the sofa with the television on in the background may be fine for some work…as may the MP3 player.
• Ensure she has some time each evening to relax, and time during the week for some other activities apart from homework.
• Show an interest and offer to help if she wants you to.
• Don’t insist on checking her work and giving unasked for advice on improving it.
• Don’t do it for her. If she’s really struggling, it’s better to discuss with her when she can see the relevant teacher, preferably before the handing-in deadline….Be particularly careful with work for public examinations. Exam boards can penalise a candidate severely if they think it’s not their own work.

Try to prevent homework becoming a battleground which might ultimately harm the relationship between you and your daughter. If you find your daughter really isn’t coping with homework, then talk with the school. They, as much as you, want her to be able to achieve her best and homework is an integral part of that.