PLEASE start the Homework Habit!!

"My child has always gotten A's and now I'm seeing B's and C's. What is going on?"

"My child is actually crying at night because of homework. What can be done to stop this?"

If you haven't thought this or said this yet.... your time is coming. :-)

Every year we hear from parents of gifted students, usually in older grades, who are frustrated because they have noticed their child's grades are slipping OR their child is frustrated by the need to do homework. This is a common concern and there are some things you can do, starting in the first grade, to help with this life transition when it does happen. Here are some things to consider:

1. The gifted child isn't always going to know everything that is being taught in the regular classroom. Often times we find this may not be the case until 5th or 6th grade; for others it’s college. For most 5th to 8th grade is the first time they've come across brand-new content. Your child needs to know it is ok to not understand or remember how to do things right away. Learning isn’t supposed to be easy or else it isn’t really learning; it’s just memorizing.

2. The average first or second grader usually has 15-20 minutes of homework per night (on an average of four nights per week) in order to reinforce class lessons and feel that the material has been mastered. A third and fourth grader spends closer to 30-45 minutes per night. A seventh or eighth grader spends from 45 minutes to an hour and a half depending on his or her class load. The average student learns to expect this at an early age. The gifted student hasn’t usually had to take that much time for mastery of classroom objectives, especially in grades 1-4. This becomes a big adjustment when you go from 0 minutes of homework per night to 45 minutes or an hour a night. This is usually when grades start slipping because they just don’t dedicate that much time since they’ve never had to before, OR tears come because they are sticking with it, but can’t believe it’s taking them so long to master it.

3. Implement a “homework time” based on the times given above as early as first grade. If your child doesn’t need to review for class, have him or her work on the Independent Project for gifted class or check out our class websites/Portaportal for sites they can visit to challenge them at their current level. This establishes the discipline of studying nightly. When the need does arise to have to really focus to learn something for a class, it won’t be as stressful for you or your child because it will already be a part of what you do!

Give it a try! We will be challenging all gifted students in grades 1-6 to start this habit now. Be looking for the Homework Log to come home in the next few weeks. You will be SO thankful you are instilling this discipline now. No parent wants to get the phone call from their brilliant college freshman saying he or she wants to drop out because it’s just too hard. Prepare now by having habits in place to deal with things when they get hard. Praise effort more than “being smart” during this habit-building homework time. You’ll be glad you did!