Each end of the afternoon, the time for homework approaches. When for some it is only a formality, for others the tension mounts, the tone also and it is in the cries and the stress that parents and children arrive at the end (or not) of the requested objective. How to get out of the downward spiral? Some tips are possible.

No need to feel guilty. Teaching, being a teacher is a profession. During the period of confinement, many parents became aware of this. It requires patience, time, the desire to transmit, a calm posture and above all to let the child do it.

A study conducted by Canadians on homework showed that 59% of parents often do not know how to help their child effectively. It is this problem that generates in them a feeling of frustration and helplessness.

Homework also leads to a loss of self-confidence and demotivation among students (37%). Among their parents, 41% think that it is this loss of confidence that is in itself the number one obstacle to their children’s academic success.

In 2008, Cooper, head of the psychology and neuroscience department at Duke University in the United States, conducted a study that identified the results of some 60 surveys on the effectiveness of homework. The conclusion is: “Researchers at Duke University evaluated 1987 studies of homework between 2003 and XNUMX and concluded that homework has a positive effect on academic achievement.”

A positive effect for success

In The New York Times, Cooper explains that homework has a positive effect on success, as long as the amount of homework given to students is well balanced. In the article, he suggests 10 minutes of homework per night, multiplied by the school year. For example, a child in grade 6 should have 60 minutes of homework each evening. On the other hand, he warns that the effectiveness of homework decreases after 90 minutes per evening for a student at the start of secondary school.

According to some studies, we only retain:

• 10% of what we read;
• 20% of what we hear;
• 50% of what we see and hear simultaneously;
• 80% of what we are able to explain to a third party;
• 90% of what we write.

Written homework is therefore part of the essential means of learning, because it contributes to the involvement of the student in the acquisition of knowledge. They allow learning to be consolidated.

But after a long day at school, they are seen much more as an imposed overload of work, rather than an opportunity.

In order to make this moment more pleasant, the teachers advise to put in place several things:

• A ritual: the child knows that from such hour to such hour, he must do his homework. This empowers him and gives him a benchmark;
• After a moment of rest: no need to ask a child to do his homework immediately after his school day. He must first have his snack, have time to tell about his day, play a little freely. He will then be more inclined to get behind a table;
• Reserve a quiet place, where the child will be able to display his belongings and organize them as he wishes. No distractions or screens nearby;
• S” ensure that he has the right equipment, because going back and forth to get a compass, a pencil sharpener or a square does not allow the child to rest and be concentrated.

There are different methods that will help your child to memorize better.

Support him

But not do it for him. If the parent is too present, he does not leave the child the opportunity to seek, think, organize himself as he wishes and build his learning logic.

Use the appropriate storage methods

Each person has memory, but for some retaining information will be done more by noise (auditory memory), by image (visual memory), by touch (kinesthetic memory), by smells. You just have to find what speaks to him best.

For example, the alphabet can be revised thanks to the songs of Chantal Goya, who recites the alphabet in song.

Learning must be concrete

For mathematics for example, it is possible to use objects, fruits, coins… to show him that the additions are used for different things in everyday life. Making sense allows you to learn and remember better.

To help parents

Many parents are helpless when it comes to math or physics-chemistry problems. Thanks to new technologies, there are applications, WhatsApp groups that are created by teachers, websites and of course paid homework assistance services, which can unlock the learning of a subject.