✦Family · 11 recordsA homework routine

Homework rows are usually about when rather than about the work. A fixed slot removes the nightly negotiation, and being clear about your own role — nearby, available, not correcting everything — is what stops it becoming a shared task.

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Goal

Homework done without a nightly row Month 2

A fixed slot, and a clear role for the adult.

Set the slot Week 3

Chosen with them, then defended.

  • Agree the time together, and write it downDo firstDay 5
  • Set up a place with no screen on itDo firstDay 12
  • Hold the slot for two weeks without negotiatingDo firstWeek 3

Get my own role right Month 2

Nearby and available. Not correcting everything.

  • Decide what help means, and say it out loudDo firstWeek 4
  • Review after a month: is the length right?Week 8

Routines

  • The homework slotdaily
  • Read togetherdaily
✦ It comes with a note

The row is about when, not what

A fixed time removes the nightly negotiation, which is where nearly all of the conflict actually lives.\n\nCorrecting everything produces neat homework that tells the teacher nothing about what your child found hard, which is the entire point of it going in.

✦ Questions

A homework routine, answered.

The same time every day, chosen with them and defended. Which time matters far less than it being fixed, because most of the conflict is the nightly negotiation rather than the work itself.
Be nearby and available, and stop there. Correcting everything produces neat homework that teaches the teacher nothing about what your child actually found hard, which is the whole point of it going in.
Shorten it and protect the routine. A predictable twenty minutes that happens beats an open-ended session that is dreaded, and the plan says so because parents tend to try the opposite first.
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