homework time

[Ana_87]

I find homework time with my 6 yr daughter very stressful.I find myself sometimes raising my voice to her when she doesnt listen to me..Any other parents going through this?

[margypops]

I always found it was a good idea to allow children to take charge of their own home work and give help when asked to , maybe back off a bit and see if it works better .What is it that annoys you ?

[specialmom]

Hi there.  I'm the mom of a 6 year old and 8 year old and we've had homework ups and downs as well.  Hopefully at 6 your child doesn't have too much homework and if they do, talk to the teacher.  There are typically guidelines for amount of time spent on homework at that age.  Probably no more than 20 minutes is about right.  

I found that my kids do better with some activity before homework.  By this I mean, physical activity.  Even just playing a game of crazy animal walks with crab walks, bear walks and leap frog amont others included really helps with the nervous system.  It slows it down a bit so kids can really focus in on homework.  My older son has sensory issues and this strategy was given to us by his occupational therapist. Also a snack prior to homework is helpful too.

Then we have a homework 'place' that they do it.  It is organized with pencils, crayons, etc. and is nice and quiet.  It really helps to tackle homework around the same time each day that he/she has some as then doing it becomes routine/habit.  

Another occupational therapist trick that you will might think odd but it sure helps my son is to allow them to chew a piece of gum while doing homework.  It is calming and organizing to the processing system.

So, that might help for the settling down to do homework.  My next question is do you notice any issues that seem to trigger her having difficulty?  For example, does she have trouble with handwriting?  This would cause homework in which she has to write to be very frustrating and she would resist it.  Does she have any trouble with completing work at school and have they identified any areas of trouble for her?  All of this would be helpful to know.

I would say do your very best NOT to yell at her.  This will make homework time very stressful and sets a tone of negativity to it so that she will always associate homework with bad feelings.  She may start to feel inadequate or lose confidence in herself and you really do not want this.  No matter what, she should be made to feel good for her effots so that she view learning and the work required to do it as something SHE CAN DO.  

So, good luck.  Let me know if the answers to some of those questions and I'll see what else I can think of!