Beating the Homework Blues

School is starting back and it's a time of new beginnings, changes and adjustments. The biggest adjustment may be that of the re-awakening of homework! Your children's minds have probably dropped to minimal functionality during the summer; their routines have been lax and you, the parents, have rejoiced.
Now it's back to the basics and the struggle will soon begin again.

At the beginning of the school year there tends to be resistance from children to get back in the groove of completing homework efficiently and effectively. This has the potential to create power struggles in the home.
However, there are things that parents can do to help ease the transition back to doing homework.

Do the prep work.
Preparation generally helps to ease processes and saves time in the long run.
It's time to prep your kids.

Implement a routine two weeks prior to the first day of school.

Reintroduce structure to their day and provide them with grade accurate level worksheets to complete. This will trigger the brain to begin reworking a lot of the previous year's lessons.

By doing this you will also help refocus the children to sit still and focus on something (anything!) for a set period of time. By the time school begins, there shouldn't be a challenge for your kids to start doing homework effectively on day one.
Make homework fun. This, most likely, pertains to elementary age children.
Allow them to use items that relate to things they like.

When doing math, let them use Lego men/women as counters. Let them choose a book to read about their favorite cartoon character.

Make up a song or silly rhyming game to learn sight and/or spelling words. We, as humans, are more open to doing something that we enjoy.
Use this to the advantage of children and find a way to incorporate something of personal enjoyment.
Keep the length of time reasonable.
There are so many stories about children being bogged down with so much homework that they, literally, don't have time to do anything else.

Help enforce a reasonable time frame for homework completion.

Set a certain amount of time for each grade (i.
e. 10 minutes per grade). This will help keep homework time sensible and avoid it becoming a daunting never-ending task. Homework doesn't have to be dreaded, nor does it have to be a struggle.

Hopefully these ideas will start your kids off on a positive and enjoyable path.

Try them out and see the difference they make in your home.