Avoid having your child do homework with the television on or in places with other

distractions, such as people coming and going.

Ask your child if special materials will be needed for some projects and get them in

advance.

Establish a set time each day for doing homework. Don't let your child leave

homework until just before bedtime. Think about using a weekend morning or

afternoon for working on big projects, especially if the project involves getting

together with classmates.

Tell your child how important school is. The attitude you express about homework

will be the attitude your child acquires.

Show your child that the skills they are learning are related to things you do as an

adult. If your child is reading, you read too. If your child is doing math, balance your

checkbook.

Giving answers means your child will not learn the material. Too much help teaches

your child that when the going gets rough, someone will do the work for him or her.

Cooperate with the teacher. It shows your child that the school and home are a

team. Follow the directions given by the teacher.

Too much parent involvement can prevent homework from having some positive

effects. Homework is a great way for kids to develop independent, lifelong learning

skills.

Talk with your child's teacher. Make sure you know the purpose of homework and

what your child's class rules are.

Have your child do the hard work first. This will mean he will be most alert when

facing the biggest challenges. Easy material will seem to go fast when fatigue begins

to set in.

Let your child take a short break if she is having trouble keeping her mind on an

assignment.

If your child has been successful in homework completion and is working hard,

celebrate that success with a special event (e.g., pizza, a walk, a trip to the park) to

reinforce the positive effort.

assignments.

has missed and help her to read the word correctly.

reread the entire sentence from the beginning to make sure he understands what

the sentence is saying.

ask your child questions about the characters and events in the story.

to support her answer with information from the story.

and why.

his homework.

communication with his or her teacher.

he or she is working at grade level and what can be done at home to help improve

academic progress.

child really needs help.

math. These tutoring programs have proven results, and students really enjoy them.

and repair activities.

and shortcuts that conflict with the approach the teacher is using. Check in with the

teacher and ask what you can do to help. Ask the teacher about online resources

that you can use with your child at home.

will enable you to help your child with math homework.

U.S. Department of Education, Office of Intergovernmental and Interagency Affairs, Educational

Homework has been a part of students' lives since the beginning of formal schooling in the

United States. However, the practice has sometimes been accepted and other times

rejected, both by educators and parents. This has happened because homework can have

both positive and negative effects on children's learning and attitudes toward school.

In the early 20th century, the mind was viewed as a muscle that could be strengthened

through mental exercise. Since exercise could be done at home, homework was viewed

favorably. During the 1940s, schools began shifting their emphasis from memorization to

problem solving. Homework fell out of favor because it was closely associated with the

repetition of material. In the 1950s, Americans worried that education lacked rigor and left

children unprepared for the new technologies, such as computers. Homework, it was

believed, could speed up learning.

In the 1960s, educators and parents became concerned that homework was crowding out

social experience, outdoor recreation and creative activities. Two decades later, in the

1980s, homework again came back into favor as it came to be viewed as one way to stem a

rising tide of mediocrity in American education. The push for more homework continued into

the 1990s, fueled by rising academic standards.

Homework can have many benefits for young children. It can improve remembering and

understanding of schoolwork. Homework can help students develop study skills that will be

of value even after they leave school. It can teach them that learning takes place anywhere,

not just in the classroom. Homework can benefit children in more general ways as well. It

can foster positive character traits such as independence and responsibility. Homework can

teach children how to manage time.

Homework, if not properly assigned and monitored, can also have negative effects on

children. Educators and parents worry that students will grow bored if they are required to

spend too much time on schoolwork. Homework can prevent children from taking part in

leisure-time and community activities that also teach important life skills. Homework can

lead to undesirable character traits if it promotes cheating, either through the copying of

assignments or help with homework that goes beyond tutoring.

The issue for educators and parents is not which list of effects, the positive or negative, is

correct. To a degree, both are. It is the job of parents and educators to maximize the

benefit of homework and minimize the costs.

The most critical question about homework is "How much homework should students do?"

Experts agree that the amount of homework should depend on the age and skills of the

student. Many national groups of teachers and parents, including the National Parent

Teacher Association (PTA), suggest that homework for children in kindergarten through

second grade is most effective when it does not exceed 10-20 minutes each day. In third

through sixth grade, children can benefit from 30-60 minutes of homework per day. Junior

high and high school students can benefit from more time on homework, and the amount

may vary from night to night.

Reading at home is especially important for young children. High-interest reading

assignments might push the time on homework a bit beyond the minutes suggested above.

These recommendations are consistent with the conclusions reached by many studies on the

effectiveness of homework. For young children, research shows that shorter and more

frequent assignments may be more effective than longer but fewer assignments. This is

because young children have short spans of attention and need to feel they have

successfully completed a task.

Homework assignments typically have one or more purposes. The most common purpose is

introduces material that will be presented in future lessons. These assignments aim to help

requires the student to apply many different skills to a single task, such as book reports,

science projects or creative writing.

In particular, math homework has been shown to be more important in the middle to high

school grades and less important in the elementary grades. It starts to become important in

the fourth grade and is increasingly important in the upper grades.

Research also shows that parent involvement can have either a positive or negative impact

on the value of homework. Parent involvement can be used to speed up a child's learning.

Homework can involve parents in the school process. It can enhance parents' appreciation

of education. It can give them an opportunity to express positive attitudes about the value

of success in school.

But parent involvement may also interfere with learning. For example, parents can confuse

children if the teaching techniques they use differ from those used in the classroom. Parent

involvement in homework can turn into parent interference if parents complete tasks that

the child is capable of completing alone.

When mothers and fathers get involved with their children's homework, communication

between the school and family can improve. It can clarify for parents what is expected of

students. It can give parents a firsthand idea of what students are learning and how well

their child is doing in school.

Research shows that if a child is having difficulty with homework, parents should become

involved by paying close attention. They should expect more requests from teachers for

their help. If a child is doing well in school, parents should consider shifting their efforts to

providing support for their child's own choices about how to do homework. Parents should

avoid interfering in the independent completion of assignments.

As this brief introduction suggests, homework can be an effective way for students to

improve their learning and for parents to communicate their appreciation of schooling.

Because a great many things influence the impact of homework achievement, expectations

for homework's effects, especially in the earlier grades, must be realistic.

Homework policies and practices should give teachers and parents the flexibility to take into

account the unique needs and circumstances of their students. That way, they can

maximize the positive effects of homework and minimize the negative ones.

Avoid having your child do homework with the television on or in places with other

distractions, such as people coming and going.

Ask your child if special materials will be needed for some projects and get them in

advance.

Establish a set time each day for doing homework. Don't let your child leave

homework until just before bedtime. Think about using a weekend morning or

afternoon for working on big projects, especially if the project involves getting

together with classmates.

Tell your child how important school is. The attitude you express about homework

will be the attitude your child acquires.

Show your child that the skills they are learning are related to things you do as an

adult. If your child is reading, you read too. If your child is doing math, balance your

checkbook.

Giving answers means your child will not learn the material. Too much help teaches

your child that when the going gets rough, someone will do the work for him or her.

Cooperate with the teacher. It shows your child that the school and home are a

team. Follow the directions given by the teacher.

Too much parent involvement can prevent homework from having some positive

effects. Homework is a great way for kids to develop independent, lifelong learning

skills.

Talk with your child's teacher. Make sure you know the purpose of homework and

what your child's class rules are.

Have your child do the hard work first. This will mean he will be most alert when

facing the biggest challenges. Easy material will seem to go fast when fatigue begins

to set in.

Let your child take a short break if she is having trouble keeping her mind on an

assignment.

If your child has been successful in homework completion and is working hard,

celebrate that success with a special event (e.g., pizza, a walk, a trip to the park) to

reinforce the positive effort.

assignments.

has missed and help her to read the word correctly.

reread the entire sentence from the beginning to make sure he understands what

the sentence is saying.

ask your child questions about the characters and events in the story.

to support her answer with information from the story.

and why.

his homework.

communication with his or her teacher.

he or she is working at grade level and what can be done at home to help improve

academic progress.

child really needs help.

math. These tutoring programs have proven results, and students really enjoy them.

and repair activities.

and shortcuts that conflict with the approach the teacher is using. Check in with the

teacher and ask what you can do to help. Ask the teacher about online resources

that you can use with your child at home.

will enable you to help your child with math homework.

U.S. Department of Education, Office of Intergovernmental and Interagency Affairs, Educational