I bet by the title of this article you were thinking that one of my kids decided they needed a tutor. Nope. I do. Has anybody else tried to do 5th grade math lately?
Both of my parents were math teachers; however they did not pass that gene to me. In fact, in Junior High School, I tried to convince my math teacher that I was getting a horrible grade because I did not understand the material and there was no one at home who could help me. (Mind you, my mother was teaching the same curriculum down the hall). I would have done anything to get out of it, because I just didn’t get it. And because I didn’t get it, I loathed doing it.
Now, I have a child who is in 5th grade and battling the math woes, although she does understand it a little better than I did. We often call Gramma on the phone who will graciously and patiently walk us through reducing fractions.
I am a firm believer in getting the help that your kids need, and if that’s a tutor then do it. I know tutors can be very expensive, but you can also contact your local high school’s career center where there might be a high school student looking to make a little extra cash.
Once they do “get it” and once you know they can actually do their homework, here are a few suggestions on making homework a teeny bit easier:
1. Establish a homework time. Ours is right after school. The kids come home, have a snack and dive right in.
2. Separate them when necessary. If you have more than one homework aged child, give each of them a space to do their work, that’s close enough to you if they need help. The point of homework time is to actually do the work, not sit and talk or nag each other.
3. Have pens, pencils, crayons and paper ready. Get your stash and have it in the same place everyday. When they come home, they know exactly where their materials are.
4. With younger children, go over what needs to be done, and if necessary help them prioritize. You will have to repeat this after the complete the first assignment and that’s ok. The lesson here is to get them to complete things in the proper order. They will catch on. For older children, allow them to try on their own first. After 3rd grade, they really need to be taking on some of this responsibility alone.
5. If you have a child who refuses to do their work, or lags behind on purpose (I, of course don’t have one of those – wink, wink), let them know that they have a certain amount of time to do their work and that’s it. Once the warning has been given, set the timer and let them know they have a half hour to complete their work. If it is not done in that half hour they will turn it in incomplete. They can then deal with the consequences at school. No need to punish them at home also. We’re trying to prepare them for the real world, and in the real world, if they don’t finish an assignment; they deal with it at work. Mommy doesn’t come over and put them in the corner.
6. Keep in touch with your child’s teacher. Do not be afraid or intimidated to email or call their teacher to check on their progress. That’s what they’re there for.
7. Reward! When progress reports come around, and they have great effort grades, take them out for an ice cream. There are probably a lot more places in your community that have a free ice cream for good grades or something like that. Let them know you’re proud of them.
8. Last but not least, let them be responsible for their actions. Let them put their work away, their backpacks away and let them load them up for the next day.
Remember, everything we do as parents is to get our kids ready for real life, even homework.