How To Help With Homework

General

There are lots of ways you can help with homework - without actually providing your child with the answers!

Of course, you can help with specific pieces of work (for instance, by suggesting where to look something up), but there are ways to help more generally too.

Study Skills

These are general skills used in most subjects. Obviously, the older your child is, the more sophisticated the skills she will be able to use. For instance:

  • Organising (the place your child works at, the equipment he uses, making sure he has everything for school the next day).

  • Using pens, pencils, rubbers, pencil sharpeners, and rulers appropriately.

  • Concentrating on reading or a piece of work.

  • Reading skills (such as reading silently and understanding the meaning; using contents pages, indexes, dictionaries and encyclopaedias; knowing the difference between a fact and an opinion; being able to draw conclusions from the information she is given).

  • Writing skills (organising material; taking notes; planning a story or essay; evaluating it; being able to change it to make it better).

Helping with Reading

Reading should always be enjoyable.
  • Not all reading has to stretch the child.

  • Let your child choose his own reading material, and don't criticise it.

  • Let your child see you reading, so she knows you think it is important.

  • Join the library.

With younger children:
  • Find a calm, comfortable place to read together. Help your child understand how books work - which way round they go, that the print runs from left to right and so on.

  • Choose different kinds of material (stories, factual books, comics) and don't be surprised if your child wants to read the same book again and again. She'll move on when she's ready.

  • Don't worry if your child wants to "tell you the story" but then what he "reads" doesn't match the words on the page. This is a valuable pre-reading activity.

  • Help your child to understand the story by talking about the pictures, the plot and characters.

  • Look for patterns such as repeated first letters or sounds, rhymes, or "-ing" or "-ed" words.
With Older Children:
  • Read together every night - this can mean sharing a story book, looking facts up in information books, or sharing a time for silent reading.

  • Help your child understand how to use reference books, dictionaries and encyclopaedias.

  • Let your child buy comics or magazines - these are as important a part of the reading experience as classic fiction or detailed information books.

  • Let your child see you reading - not just books, but newspapers, magazines and reference books (including things like telephone books).