While parents and researchers generally agree that homework is a valuable learning tool, homework is nonetheless a frequent source of stress in many households. What causes this stress?  How can you reduce the stress?

Homework time in many homes can be very stressful and tension-filled for both you and your child. You involvement can become stressful if you start to feel that you lack the knowledge, skills, and time to help your child.

• Praise your child with the things he or she ‘can’ do rather than focusing on the things that he or she cannot do.  Perhaps your child is persistent and determined.  Maybe he is a good listener or perhaps she has a good grasp of one of the skills that you are working on.  In any case, you are essentially trying to help your child learn and one of the best ways to do so is to make the homework process as painless as possible and help your child become more confident.

• Make your child more responsible.  Don’t become your child’s crutch.  That is, try not to make your child dependent on you with regards to starting homework and continuing homework until completion.  Get your child to take the initiative to start his or her homework and to follow through until the end.
• Break assignments in smaller chunks. Chunking assignments into smaller chunks is often helpful for kids who have problems staying on task, have shorter attention spans (ADD/ADHD), or are overly anxious when doing homework.

• Create a homework contract. You may want to set up a contract with your child whereby your child receives a reward for initiating and completing homework on a consistent basis.

     Try to follow these recommendations and you will hopefully avoid homework battles.