Homework: Help or supervise?

Many parents wrestle with the question of how much help they should provide to their children regarding homework. It’s an especially difficult question for parents of children who seem to be struggling in school.

A good approach for all parents is to talk to their children about the nature of the assignment to make sure they understand very clearly what they are expected to do. It can be helpful to guide them as they do the first item or two of an assignment. But parents should not have to remain with their children throughout the entire session.

In cases where children seem to want their parents by their side while doing all their homework, it can help to start an incentive program for independent work to help wean your children off reliance on you for support. You can also set the kitchen timer and tell your children to wait until it rings to show you their work or to ask questions. This way you can gradually increase each child’s independence.

You may want to review homework assignments after they are completed to check for neatness or accuracy. If you know your children are capable of writing neatly without an inordinate amount of effort and yet the work appears illegible, it is acceptable to ask them to rewrite the assignment. If your children are advanced enough to proofread or check mistakes for themselves, you may want to hand back a paper saying, “I found three mistakes on your math page, see if you can find them.” Or, you could simply say, “Please look for spelling errors, I see a few.”

If a child is not advanced enough to find the mistakes on his or her own, point out where the errors lie and ask the child to correct them. But don’t supply the correct answers.

It’s good to keep in mind the overall purpose of homework: giving children independent practice with a skill they have already been taught. Parents should not have to teach the skills necessary for a child to complete homework successfully. If your children cannot complete at least 70 percent of a homework assignment working on their own, this is important information for a teacher to know. Either the assignment was inappropriate or the student did not master the material that was taught in class. Make an appointment with your child’s teacher to share the necessary information and perhaps get assignments that will better target the practice your child needs.

It also can be helpful to talk to a teacher if children seem to be spending an excessive amount of time doing homework, even though they are successful at it. Ask the teacher how much time a child should be spending on the assignments and inform the teacher if there is a major discrepancy. Again, this can be useful information for a teacher to know as he or she deals with a classroom full of students with a wide range of abilities.