A Good Homework Routine – Stage 4 and 5

A good homework routine – Stage 4: make improvement and reward them

After a few weeks of coaching kids through homework routine, you will notice the effect. They’ll take on the routine happily and love the play time they have. You will be calmer and have time for other things as well.

It is important you continuously monitor how the process is working. This is a vital part of kid coaching. Maybe you find out that they need a bit of support ahead of an assessment or spelling test. Perhaps, they need to write their questions so they don’t forget at the end. It may also be that they need more support from their teacher.

Whatever area of improvement you are thinking about, take it through steps 1 to 3.

• Is is aligned with the main goal?
• Share it with them. Agreement is ideal but not mandatory
• Implement without exception.

It is possible that you will get a bit concerned because they are used to presenting half finished homework. This is when having the teacher on board is paramount. Talk to them and ask them to challenge and encourage your child:

• When they don’t finish the work, they should be reminding them
• If they finish with a poor standard, they should be talking to you to identify where the problem is. If it knowledge, ensure they get more support. However, if it laziness, push them.
• When they finish the work to a good standard, reward them. House points, stickers, a note in their diary or a simple high 5 will go a long way.

A good homework routine – Stage 5: be proud and enjoy it

After 4-6 weeks, the routine will be almost perfect. There will always be things to consider and small new challenges to face as you continue coaching kids. When this happens, ensure you go back to steps 1—4 and follow a similar approach. This way you will not only know the changes but complementing and improving on them.

Celebrate the work your children are doing. Ensure they are proud of their achievements and success. Let them see how much better the evenings are now.

Kid coaching requires constant reviewing with age. As they get into more challenging years (ie. entrance exams or 11+) they might need to increase the work they do. If this is the case, ensure you follow a similar approach and be very conscious on the time. It is ok to go from 45mins to 1hr or even 1hr 15min but be mindful of the amount of work they have and how long their days are. When coaching kids, you always have to find the balance.

After 3 or 4 months, when the routine is fully established, you can start thinking on what is the next area of responsibility you can give them. If the programme has worked well you will also notice them being a lot more responsible and autonomous in packing their bags, making their beds and things like that.