How To Help Your Child With Their Homework
Homework is a crucial supplement to the learning your child undertakes at school. As a parent you can do a lot to help your child with their homework. We spoke to David Littlemore, Assistant Head teacher at Whitton School in London to show you how to help your child with their homework.
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Step 1:
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Provide a quiet space
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This should be somewhere where they can concentrate – possibly with a radio for music if that's helpful to them. Ideally this should be a dedicated homework space that is the same place they always use.
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Step 2:
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Take an interest
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Try to work learning into their everyday lives. Find out what they're doing at school and engage in activities relevant to that. Studying climate change in science? You could point out, or even cut out and keep, articles about the subject from your daily newspaper.
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Step 3:
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Provide learning materials
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Children can benefit from having revision resources at home. Find out which exam boards they are studying with and provide the material recommended by those boards. This might be textbooks, exemplar materials or other recommended reading.
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Step 4:
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Don't do it for them
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If you are an expert in an area your child is studying, let them know that you are available for them to use as a resource. However, you should resist the temptation to do the work for them - they need to do it themselves if they are going to learn effectively.
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Step 5:
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Praise effort and achievement
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It's important to encourage good work when it's been done, as children respond far better to praise than to criticism. However it's also important, if you know the work is below their usual standard, to offer constructive advice. Work together to figure out the reason why their work has suffered; this will help them do better work in future.
