Homework. Ugh, I cringe at the thought from all the homework and tears that went into my school years. Well, you grow up forget about it, just to turn around and have children who, one day, bring the same headache home! And usually it’s late at night and last minute! Maybe we can make this a little less complicated for everyone!
How to do Homework Fast at Night!
So the kids arrive home off the bus give or take around 3:30 pm. They come in the house, tell us about their day, go get a snack and if they are old enough, go straight to their phones. Then you start supper, clean up and want to have the rest of the night to relax. Then your child says “ Mom, I forgot I have homework, and I need your help!” Palm to your face. Really!?
They are in a panic and suddenly forget everything they learned that day and just want you to come to the rescue. Well at least this is what my oldest does. She gets so frantic and thinks the world is ending. They have iPads for school. I grab it and ask her to show me which subject she needs this done for. Okay, got it, and she swears they didn’t learn about this and that they have to just pull it all from memory. 9/10 times if you look in their lesson plans you can find what they learned. So I do that and sometimes will read the material out loud to her while she listens and picks out the answer.
Even if you are only doing the reading to them, I think it gives them a sense of security. They know you are there and willing to help them in their crisis. It calms their mind down and makes them think more logically. It’s not just “their” problem, now they have someone to share it with. They don’t have to face it alone. It tends to get done much faster then them just sitting their spacing out and not knowing what to do first.
Now when they come to you at 8:00 at night with a project, they just gotta quit that crap! On a serious note though, if it involves a craft, we as parents usually have some stash of craft supplies lying around. In my opinion, and I’m sure you’ll agree, coming to school with a thrown together project, is usually better than showing up without a project.
One time my daughter had culture day at school, of course she waits until the night before to remember. She was so distraught because she couldn’t think of how to dress or what to come up with. Well, our family has Native American ancestors and I found a dress in her closet that she never wore anymore, grabbed a glue gun and some misc fabric I had and got to work. She helped! And we somehow created a masterpiece. It had buttons, lace, and tons of other accents. We accomplished that task within the hour! If you work together and each takes on a job, it can get done relatively fast. She wore that dress to school and had so many compliments and she was just thrilled.
My point is, we as parents will go out of our way to help them. We just can’t be bailing them out. They are the ones that forgot and they need to remember responsibilities. They need to learn the way to do homework with hustle. So yes, by all means I will always help them when they are in a jam, but they will be doing a majority of that homework or project. Sooner or later it gets easier and they will start to remind themselves that getting homework done almost immediately is far better than waiting until the last minute.
Once the homework is done, what about the chores? Those can be very chaotic on top of the homework. Check out my blog on how we get them done in our house!
For Homework Tips, Check This Out!
Gardening with Giggles! 