10 Ways to Stop the Homework Hassle
Snack drawer to use immediately
On most school days, my daughter returns to me a “hangry” beast. The slightest mention of homework before she has a snack is likely to be met with crying and attitude. Now I keep a snack stash available where she can help herself and become a sane human being again. I keep one snack stash in the fridge and one in cupboard. I encourage her to take one from each. I usually keep:
In the Cupboard
- granola bars
- trail mix
- Pirates Booty
- Pretzels
- Gold Emblem Abound Freeze dried fruit from CVS
- Gold Emblem Abound Snack bars from CVS
- crackers
- Squeezable apple sauce
In the fridge
- string cheese
- yogurt
- clementines
- apples
- peanut butter
- grapes
Use a timer
At the beginning, my daughter looked at her packet of homework and burst into tears. She insisted that it was too long, too hard and she could never finish it. We broke out the timer. I suggested,
“Here, we will set the timer for five minutes. You try to finish as much as you can in five minutes and then take a break. Sound good?”
Then, it becomes a competition. How much can she get done before the timer runs out? I just turned homework into a game. Muah haha.
Take frequent breaks
I suggest timing breaks so that they don’t become all out free play. Simply say,
“Ok, let’s set the timer and we can play for 5 minutes.”
Some kids may have a very difficult time transitioning back to working and that’s ok. My daughter did as well. When she got emotional, I simply stepped away while she laid her head on the table. In a few minutes, she picked up her head and got to work.
Use Short Assignments
If the homework still seems a little too daunting, I’ll create short assignments for my daughter to complete. For instance, if she has a page of math, spelling and language arts, I say, “just do your spelling and then we can take a break.” Or, if there are 10 problems for math, “circle the fifth problem and have your child work up to there, then take a break.
You can transition into this being a more independent activity by asking your child to make their own short goal. Ask them, “How much do you want to do before you take a break?” and have them create their own short assignment. Eventually, your child will be able to take this over.
Small rewards
At the beginning, homework was such a struggle that I offered little rewards for each small assignment my daughter finished. I chose fruit snacks. After each homework page, she got to eat one fruit snack. After a couple of months, she no longer needed the reward to stay motivated. Word of warning though, DON’T USE FRUIT SNACKS. Llama needed 12 cavities filled that year.
Now, let’s organize your child to get the work done quickly!
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These tips are great! I especially liked the part about keeping only 1 pencil, and prompting your daughter to find her own mistakes. My son is entering first grade and I think he will have homework this year, so I will be using all of your tips. Thanks!
Thanks Lauren! I hope these tips help!
I esp like how you give her positive reinforcement when there are mistakes. My 10 year old is a perfectionist and extremely dramatic at the moment. If I point out a mistake she will say things like “oh so I got every single thing wrong!” Or “I told you I was horrible at__”, even if she got 99 out of 100 correct! This gives me a new strategy to help her feel successful. Great post!
Oh 10 year olds… I was once a fifth grade teacher so I know. I really liked that age in the classroom but kids are so different at home than at school. Good luck!! Let me know if it helps 🙂
I am in love with all of these tips! My oldest son just started kindergarten, and he has homework every night. He has to write his name 4 times. He always gives me attitude that he’s not going to do it, and threatens to erase all of his other work he did at school. I can’t wait to make a homework box. We already try to cut out all distractions, but my 2 year old is a force to be reckoned with ha-ha
Oh ya, Jessica. Make that homework box 🙂 Why do five-year-olds have to be so sassy? I get a lot of attitude over here as well 🙂
I’m in high school and to be completely honest, I use these tips but in a teen modified way and it works for me thus far. LOL, thanks so much!
Woo hoo! Frankly Tammy, I use these tips to be more productive while working as well 🙂
Thank you for this! I had to self-learn several of these steps the hard way, but there is so much good info. I’m going to print out the check lists and that homework box will be such a time saver!
Happy to help Rachelle!
Thanks for these great tips! My son just started Kindergarten this week… so he shouldn’t have too much homework this year. Whenever the homework does start for him though, I am anticipating a battle… so hopefully implementing these tips will make the process go a little more smoothly for both of us!!!! 🙂
Thank you Kristin! If you run into any problems, come let me know 🙂 In fact, I have a great facebook group of moms! Come join us here.