Whether your child is seven or 17, creating a livable homework routine is important for your child’s academic development. On the website for the U.S, Department of Education I found an excellent resource by former Secretary of Education, Margaret Spellings entitled, “Helping Your Child With Homework.” Spellings suggests the following tips for helping children develop a homework routine:

• Set a Regular Time for Homework
• Pick a Place
• Remove Distractions
• Provide Supplies and Identify Resources
• Set a Good Example
• Be Interested and Interesting

Below, I took each of Spellings’s six steps and elaborated a bit on each one:

Set a Regular Time for Homework

Setting a regular time for homework is the most important element of the routine. An optimum time for homework completion is right after your child gets home from school, so that the rest of the afternoon and evening can be spent enjoying family time.

Pick a Place

I find it’s best to station a designated homework area near the rest of the family, so that you’re available if your child has a question. A kitchen or dining room table is a great area to designate as the homework work space for your child.

Remove Distractions

Even if your child’s homework space is in a common area like the living room or kitchen, there shouldn’t be any distractions.Turn off the TV and put away the iPod during the space of time allotted in your homework routine.

Provide Supplies and Identify Resources

Before your child starts her homework for the day, go over the list of homework assignments your child has (hopefully) written down in her assignment notebook. Make sure she has all of the proper supplies (i.e. notebooks, pencils, binder, etc.) and textbooks needed to complete the day’s assignments. This eliminates unnecessary breaks to gather supplies and helps your child get done with her homework faster.

Set a Good Example

While your child is working on homework, use this time to do some learning of your own. Perhaps make the allotted homework time your time for reading the newspaper, trying out a new recipe, or answering correspondence. If your child sees you using the skills you learned in school, she is likely to take your cue and be enthusiastic about school.

Be Interested and Interesting

If you take the time to get to know your child’s teacher and take an interest in what your child is learning about in school, your child will take notice and be more likely to want to succeed. Although this sounds like it might be very time consuming, it can be as easy as going over your child’s assignment pad with her on a daily basis and attending parent teacher conferences each semester.

Setting up a consistent homework routine is one of the keys to starting off the school year right!

Do you already have a homework routine in place in your household? Leave a comment and let everyone know what works for you!