Homework Made Easy

By the time your teen enters middle or high school, your teen has almost certainly established some type of pattern for the way she does her homework, so you may feel your job is done.

Not so fast. Even a bright, well-organized student may have trouble pacing herself for long-range assignments and juggling the work of six or seven classes every night.

As a parent, you want your teen to get homework done without having to impose rules; you want your teen to assume responsibility so you don't have to stand over him menacingly with a ruler (just kidding!).

To help, you might begin each year with a discussion of your teen's upcoming schedule. If she plays soccer or has a role in the fall play, then talk about when it makes the most sense to do homework. When she gets home? After rehearsal? Or maybe after dinner is the best time for her to buckle down to work. To help establish this pattern, you might pick an amount of time—say, 30 to 45 minutes a day—and state that even if she has no homework she's expected to read or do mentally challenging work during this “homework period.”