The first resource you need for doing homework is a place to work. Doing your homework in a consistent place helps get your mind ready to work when you go there. A consistent time helps too, but that's a different Homework Help lesson.
Keep the tools you will need near your homework space. Paper, pens, pencils, markers, a ruler, a computer, a calculator, glue, good lighting, a timer, a dictionary — whatever YOU need for the kind of homework you do. If you don't have a desk at which you can keep your tools, consider a basket or bin you can store in between and bring out when it's time to work.
Figure out if you do your best work with music, quiet, or random background noise you can ignore, then set up your space to provide what you need. By random background noise, I don't mean watching television while you work; I mean the conversations of strangers in a library or coffee shop. What works for you may also depend on what kind of homework you are doing, e.g., music for math, quiet for writing, random noise for reading.
Your homework resources also include information about students in your class you can contact to ask for help, or brainstorm with when the assignment allows. There are homework help web sites for many subjects. Even people in your family can be a resource on some subjects. (In a later blog, I'll talk about how parents or friends can help with subjects they have not even taken.)
To summarize, know yourself, know what you need, and keep it within reach to maximize your homework efficiency and success.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Monday, September 6, 2010
Homework Help, Lesson 1: They're Watching You
The first lesson in helping your children with their homework is ... they're watching you.
If television is all you do all night, they will not see the value of spending their time on homework. If you read, they will think reading is a good thing. If you pay bills in front of them, they see value in learning math. You are their hero or heroine, and they want to grow up to be like you. So you need to be the role model of what you want them to grow up to be. That's the first lesson in homework help.
If television is all you do all night, they will not see the value of spending their time on homework. If you read, they will think reading is a good thing. If you pay bills in front of them, they see value in learning math. You are their hero or heroine, and they want to grow up to be like you. So you need to be the role model of what you want them to grow up to be. That's the first lesson in homework help.
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