When should your Child do his Homework?

By now, your child has undoubtedly come home with homework. Has the old “homework argument” ensued as of yet?

Parent: “When are you going to do your homework?” “Child: Oh, I don’t know, maybe later.” Parent: “I want you to do it immediately after coming home from school.” “ Child: “I am going to do it after dinner.” Parent: “If you do it after dinner, you will be too tired to do quality work.” “Child: “But I am too tired now to do it.”

It sounds like a seesaw, right? Each child has an optimal time for completing their homework. One child does his best work after he immediately comes off of the bus, while another child does his best work after he takes a walk or after dinner.

First of all, I would help your child learn to become accountable, and therefore, have input in terms of when to do his homework. Remember that we are trying to encourage your child to become independent. If decisions are constantly made for him, it will be exponentially more difficult for him to make his own decisions as he gets older.
I would discuss the various choices of times in which he could complete his homework and the advantages of doing it at a specific time as compared to another time. LISTEN TO HIS OPINION. You want to give him the respect of listening to his opinion just as you expect him to give you the respect of listening to your opinion. A good idea might be to vary the times that he does his homework for a week or so and follow up with a discussion with your child as to which time you both think produces the highest quality work.
How will he manage his time? See my next blog post.