Designate a specific time and place for your child to complete homework assignments.

Helping With Homework

More than ever before, academic achievement is seen as essential to future success and American students are under constant pressure to do well in school. Despite this pressure, or perhaps because of it, most children will have difficulties in at least one subject, making the nightly ritual of completing homework assignments into a chore to be dreaded. As parents, it can be difficult to watch our kids struggling with their studies, and it's only natural to want to jump in and offer assistance. But how much help is the right amount, and when does assistance actually make things worse?

Olivia Brown is Principal of The Country School, a non-profit private school in California's San Fernando Valley. Teaching an average of 250 students enrolled in grades K through 12, the school helps children develop their own unique potential within a balanced atmosphere of freedom and structure and is dedicated to providing them with the tools they need for a successful journey through education. Here she offers some advice on how to best help your children get through their homework assignments:

• Support without interference.
  According to Brown, parents should support children while they're doing homework, but they should also try not to interfere. When you hover over a child, he or she can become stressed, and homework time can become tense.

• The value of mistakes.
  It's natural for parents to think that a child's homework has to be perfect, but homework assignments are about more than getting another A-plus in the teacher's grade book. Teachers use homework to gauge how a student is mastering lessons and skills, and mistakes will let them know which areas need attention. If you correct your child's mistakes it could give his or her teachers the idea that everything is fine when it really isn't.

• A good environment.
  The best way to help children deal with homework is to make sure they have a designated time of day and specific quiet place to do their assignments. Make sure that your child can study without outside distractions.

• Important habits.
  It's more important for your child to develop good homework habits than it is for him or her to do well on any one particular assignment. Developing good study habits now will help your child for years to come and can lead to success all through life.

For more information about childhood education and homework help, check out the following organizations or websites:

The Country School
www.county-school.org

United States Department of Education
www.ed.gov

Helping With Homework: A Parent's Guide to Information Problem-Solving
http://ericit.org

Help with Homework
www.homeworkspot.com

Big Chalk: helping with Homework
www.bigchalk.com