A Parent’s Guide to Homework
Written by: Jeffrey P. Brosco, M.D., Ph.D.
Perhaps one of the greatest ironies of parenthood occurs when your kids head back to school and suddenly you have homework too. Each night your child comes home with books to read, papers to write and math problems to solve, leaving you to wonder: “What is the right amount of homework, and what’s my job as a parent?”
Don’t worry too much about homework for young children. Duke University professor Harris Cooper, Ph.D. and his colleagues reviewed decades of research and concluded that there is little connection between homework and academic outcomes for elementary school children.
However, homework is important because it may communicate to parents what their children are learning in school and how well they are doing. It can teach students organization skills, time management, and responsibility. For elementary school children, short assignments (10 minutes for first-graders, 20 minutes for second-graders) Monday-Thursday are a realistic expectation.
Here are four rules to help you manage your kids’ homework:
1. It’s your child’s homework, not yours. Resist the urge to get involved. If your child does not hand in the homework, most teachers have gentle disciplinary measures. Children do not learn to become responsible if parents save them from consequences. Parents may help if their child has a specific question, but this should be limited. Don’t do the homework for your child, and if something is wrong, you don’t have to fix it.
2. Make rules about getting homework done. Parents should set up a place and time for doing work, make sure that children have the materials they need, and then set and enforce rules for homework. One simple rule might be: “No computer or video games until homework is finished.” Such rules teach children that there are rewards for completing necessary tasks and can help parents limit unhealthy activities.
3. Don’t tell your children why math and reading are important; show them. Parents can find fun ways to demonstrate how important basic academic skills are a part of our everyday lives. Cooking, shopping, building something, or following sports all require reading and arithmetic.
4. Set a time limit on doing homework.
Do not allow homework to interfere with play or family time. Young children need to play, develop social etiquette, and have fun. Remember that free play and a few extracurricular activities, such as team sports and dance, drama and music lessons, are all crucial to your child’s development.
Jeffrey P. Brosco, M.D., Ph.D., is Associate Director of Clinical Services at the Mailman Center for Child Development at UHealth – University of Miami Health System. For more information, visit UHealthSystem.com/patients/pediatrics.
