[Boymom21]

I have a parent who is a stepmom. Has two kids in our grade. One is her own. He doesn’t give her any trouble. The other does with homework.

Suggestions to help her navigate this?

[TAOEP]

How old and what grade?

What is the purpose of the homework?

One suggestion would be to let the child's parent, not the stepparent, deal with homework. There may well be issues here of, "You're not my mother."

Besides that, I personally feel that it is not the parent's job to handle homework. The parent should provide time for doing any schoolwork, resources (paper, computer, trips to the library). An after-school snack. Plenty of encouragement And occasional explanations or help when asked.

But the parent is not the teacher and not the enforcer of homework completion. Any consequences for not completing homework should come from the school. And if there are no consequences at school, why should the child do the work?

[1956BD]

Have a place to do the work away from distractions. Always work in the same place.

Have a designated time that homework is always done.

Have the child explain what the assignment is.

Then start the assignment as parent checks that they are doing it correctly.

Then parent should step away for a few minutes to foster independence.

Then check back with child.

Read over the homework. Brag on effort and correctly done portion. Circle numbers that are wrong and need to be check a second time. Help with first correction and then leave again.

Then return for another check every few minutes until homework is done.

It is not important that they have all the right answers. It is important that they complete the assignment and give it fair effort. Homework is for practice so you want them to learn to practice well.

If some of the corrected answers are still wrong it okay to decide to leave them that way if child is getting tired. This will show the teacher that he is still having trouble with the concept.

When work is completed make sure the child puts it aways where it can be found in their backpack. If the teacher does not require a homework folder go ahead and get one so the child can always locate their homework to turn it in.

I found that my children did better with a short break when they got home and a snack before doing homework. But this is different for each child. Some do better after dinner. Some may need to get up early the next morning to do their homework. Try different times and see what works for your child.

If the child day dreams. Set a time each timer before you leave the each time Tell them when you return in a few minutes you expect to see this much of the work completed. The child will probably stay focused better with a short goal rather than just say keep working. At first set the timer for small amounts of time and then gradually increase.

A second grader should only have about 20 minutes of homework nightly.
A third grader should have about thirty and a fourth grader about forty...... If it is taking your child a great deal longer and he is actually spending the time on task talk to his teacher about the issue.

[Boymom21]

I had the same thoughts, I appreciate it!