Implementing The Homework Trap -- Part 2

This is the second of a four-part series on implementing the concepts of the homework trap. Here, I will talk about what you can do as a parent, on your own, with or without the support of the school. My primary recommendation here is to establish clear time limits on homework. Consider making homework a family "quiet time/study hall," in which you engage in quiet activities at the same time your child does his or her homework, possibly in the same room, possibly nearby but accessible for help if needed. But the key is that the homework sessions comes to an end. In my experience, this increases rather than reduces the amount of homework that actually gets done and is far more pleasant and productive than to argue about homework through the night or to let it consume more time than you want it to take. I discuss this further in the accompanying video and I direct my readers to an article that came out last July, "How to Catch a Falling Son." This article gives a clear example of how the time-based rule helped one child in a three week period of time, shifting the course of his education from failure to success.



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Dr. Kenneth Goldberg, is the author of The Homework Trap: How to Save the Sanity of Parents, Teachers, and Students, published by Wyndmoor Press.

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