Patch Blog: Homework Woes

Do you remember having this much homework when you were a kid? Seems like kids today are spending hours each afternoon and evening on homework. I believe the rule of thumb for elementary students is 10 minutes of homework for each year they are in school, so 10 minutes for kindergarten, 20 minutes for first grade, 30 for second grade and so on. How close are your kids to meeting that goal for time spent on homework?  

Here's the follow up question—if your child is taking longer than you think he should be to complete homework, is it because too much has been assigned, or is it that your child has a hard time finishing work in a timely manner? 

I recently attended my son's parent-teacher conference and the primary concern that the teacher had was the amount of time my son took to finish some classwork. "It's not as if he doesn't know what to do," she said, "It's just that it takes him so long to do the work." He has even spent some recess time completing work that should have been done earlier in the day—well, that can't be fun, right? Poor kid, I know he just wants to play!  

At LearningRx I hear this type of story on a weekly basis from moms and dads coming to us for help for their child. "He's a smart kid" and "she has so much potential" and "he can get the work done when it's something he wants to do". When it comes down to it, parents are frustrated that homework takes so long; the result is less time for their child to play outside, less time to actually cook dinner and eat together as a family, and a feeling of being pressed for time having to rush to the sporting activity or to fit in the nightly routines getting ready for bed.  

The good news is that this processing speed skill can actually be improved. Just like you can go to a gym to strengthen your biceps and back muscles, you can work with a cognitive skills trainer to strengthen the processing speed "muscle" in your brain. To watch processing speed increase is actually pretty cool. Our trainers do a few specific, targeted activities with their students to make the brain process information faster and more accurately. To then see a kid get his homework done in a timely manner so he could actually go outside and play after school is a pretty awesome thing. Moms and dads are happier when they see their son or daughter come home from school, start homework without being reminded, and then for it to be done quickly and accurately just brings on a sigh of relief.  

So back to my original question: "Do you think your child has a hard time finishing work in a timely manner?" You can find out how your child's processing speed stacks up against others their age by taking a 3 minute observational survey here.  

I know I'll be bringing out some of the strategies we use here at LearningRx at my own house to work with my son. In the meantime, you can do some things at home, too, to help with processing speed: the first would be to break out a stopwatch (or use one online, like this one) during homework time. Tell your child, "Ok, your goal is to do (7 math problems) in (5 minutes). Ready, Go!" Pick the activity and the time you think would be appropriate. Meeting or beating the goal and/or time gets a high five. Start small and build from there.