Homework

One of my girls is driving me crazy with HW.  Normally she just stalls around so something that is supposed to take no time at all takes forever.  Her teacher said HW should only take 40 minutes including the 20 minutes of reading.  
Today the math took about 40 minutes.  Part of it was she said she missed the teacher's instructions because she went to the bathroom, so we had to go online and watch the instruction video.  That turned in to more stalling, had to do the quiz to get more tickets.  Then wanted to do the enrichment that came up after the quiz.
 
Now she is has a joint Social studies, ELA questions to answer based on a book they read in class.  Not that I  can help her since it is not a story I have read.  

 

Mine are only 1st graders: so they have only one worksheet of homework about 3-4 nights per week. One of my girls gets it done ASAP, the other : my arm hurts (from writing the number 2 twenty times!), I don't want to, I'll do it later. She is her father's daughter for sure. It'll drive my crazy as the years go one I'm sure.

 

I have one that fights us on homework too.  Gives us every excuse in the book, doesn't pay attention to what he's doing, you name it, he does it.  Honestly I find if I just leave him alone, or let him do it in his room alone, he gets it done without as much trouble.   I find myself saying "I hate homework" at least a few times a week though!

 

I have no advice, but sadly it comforts me to see that I'm not alone. One will do her work no problem and then she is done and off to play. The other dawdles and makes excuses and then loses her mind when her sister is done. I'm not sure what to do about it.

 

When we had that problem, I started using a timer.  We started out--as they were in 1st or 2nd grade, with 10 minutes on the timer.  Once the timer went off, if they were working, they would get a 5 minute break.  As they worked better, we would lengthen the work time up to 20 minutes--gradually.  All the timer does is guarantee that they will be rewarded by a break, so homework is not "never ending".  Also, it makes the timer the "bad guy" and not you.

 

That's a good idea Sharon! My one girl who does her hw no problem, tends to freak out when timed. But she needs to get used to it because they are doing daily timed math sprints in school this year. The other, who likes to make excuses about hw, responds well to an external reinforcer, so I think the timer will work well for her too!

 

In all my complaining about HW, i totally forgot that she had to do a test correction paper, which came home on Friday.  Really easy( she got 1 1/2 questions wrong and we went over it) but totally forgot till after she was in bed last night.
 
Sad part in all this is that last year she was my girl who was fast with her HW, no stalling whatsoever.  She also likes me to stand right next to her as she is working

 

If you're sure she is capable of doing it herself, put the responsibility back on her. "You can either do homework now or explain to teacher why it's not done tomorrow morning.". There will be whining and crying and you might want to inform teacher of your strategy but it will be worth it in the long run. If she likes having you around, set her up at the kitchen table while you cook or clean but make it clear that you are only available for a certain time then she's on her own. If she needs help, tell her you will only help if she's helping herself, meaning that she has to try figuring out the problems and tell you what ways she has tried and what she thinks it means before you will help.