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• Active Learning
• Homework Tips
• Study Tips and How-Tos
• Getting Involved in Your Child’s Education

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Progress reports, report cards. Parent teacher interviews… it’s that time of year for the first formal report of how kids are doing do far this grade.

The first report card can be a stressful time for parents and kids alike.  Maybe there might be a few unpleasant surprises, and maybe a few red flags, which can be stressful enough, but then to add to the stress, it’s also time for parent-teacher interviews.

Here’s the thing: parent–teacher interviews don’t have to be stressful!

Check out these tips for de-stressing the meeting-the-teacher process, and helping your kids get on the path to better grades.

Go to the interview. Even if your kid is pulling in straight A’s, going to the interview is a key part in parental involvement in education.  Studies show that the more parents are involved in their child’s education, the better grades their child gets. So go, meet the teachers that instruct and test your children, even if it’s just to shake hands and say, “nice to meet you.”

Prepare. Read the report card over before going to the interview.  Also, review any returned test or assignments that your child has be given to see if marks on the report card are aligned with marks on homework.  Bring examples of your child’s work with you to the interview if you have specific concerns.

Ask Questions. It’s not enough to just show up; parents should go into the interview informed. Have specific questions in mind in order to gain better insight classroom performance. Not sure what to ask? Asking how your child is performing in relation to the other students in the class is always a good conversation starting point. Try to keep the discussion academic.  It’s nice to hear that your child is the class charmer, but it doesn’t help help him reach his academic goals.

Set Goals.  If your child is getting a C+ and you’d like it to be a B+, then discuss actionable steps that can be taken starting right away to make this goal happen. Take notes, and set the actions in motion immediately—the next report card will be here before you know it! (Need some help setting goals?  Download our Academic Action Plan.)

Keep it Short and Friendly. Teachers and parents are on the same team when it comes to education, so being confrontational benefits no one. Also, keep in mind that the teacher has somewhere between 20 and 30 parents to meet with.  Your time is short, so maximize it!

Call Oxford Learning. Confused by report card jargon? Worried about poor grades? Concerned that your child is not being challenged enough? Call Oxford Learning to schedule a free report card consultation.  We can help you make sense of the report card! And, we’re a valuable part of your child’s academic support team.

1. Consider reviewing last year’s final report card. This will give your family an academic refresher and a little remind of the highs and lows of last year.
2. Consider setting some academic goals. Now that you’ve reviewed the outcomes of last year, start considering what academic achievements could be reached THIS year. Both parents and children can identify changes that they’d like to make this school year.
3. Consider a routine overhaul. A new school year is an opportunity to deal with any and all bad habits that can get in the way of learning. These include morning and evening routines, eating habits, after-school routines, and homework and study habits. Fine-tune your family’s routine from the first day of class and settle into a school year with better habits.
4. Consider using an agenda for more than just school. Agendas are more than just a place to write down homework, they are great for keeping track of to-do lists, questions to ask teachers, chores. Students can also use agendas to prioritize workflow, keep track of work hours, extracurricular activities, and countdown until tests and exams.
5. Consider getting extra support right off the bat. School may not even be in session yet, (or it may have just begun) but it’s not too soon to enlist in some extra support. Why wait to find out what will happen with grades this year? Get on top of any potential issues BEFORE they become a problem. Take the bull by the horns. Show this grade who’s boss!

We already know why it’s important to make learning part of your holidays, so, with the holidays fast approaching, we compiled 12 ideas to keep your kids mentally engaged over the holiday season. Check in often for new ideas, and if you have your own idea, we’d love to hear it!

Day 2: Snuggle Up With A Book.

Reading is one of the greatest ways to work on school skills over the holidays. Books not only tell stories of great adventures they help media-saturated children unplug. It helps children learn how to sustain their attention and develop vocabulary and reading comprehension—all great skills that are necessary in the classroom.

Need some ideas on what books are appropriate for what age? Visit Family Education’s reading list for some great book suggestions broken down by age groups

Tip One: Get Crafty Together

1. Take Envy-Worthy Class Notes. The first step in making homework easier actually begins in class with good note taking. In order to take the kind of class notes that other classmates will ask to borrow, students have to be actively paying attention in class—texting, daydreaming, or crushing on the cutie two rows over might be fun, but certainly doesn’t work in students’ favour when it’s homework time.

2. Use Your Agenda. Schools don’t pass out agendas so that students have a place to doodle—an agenda is actually a very important tool that helps students stay organized. But, it can be used for more than just copying down daily homework assignments: it can help students prioritize their workflow, organize their time, keep track of questions to ask the teacher, and much, much more.

3. Know What Works for You. There’s a lot of differing advice about how to proceed with homework. Start with the hardest subject. Start with their easiest subject. But there is only one piece of advice that students really need: do whatever works for you. Getting the homework done is the name of the game, so whether students like to get math out of the way first, or whether they always read for English while sitting on the couch, the important thing is that they develop a routine that helps them easily get into the homework groove.

4. It’s Homework Time. If there’s one thing that we know about the brain, it’s that it can be easily trained. It’s wired to develop habits and to recognize schedules, like when it’s time to eat, and when it’s time get up. The brain can also be readily programmed to recognize when it’s homework time. In order to do this, students need to work on homework at approximately the same time every day. By being consistent about when they crack open the books, students will find themselves getting into the homework groove regularly and effortlessly.

5. Homework Habitat. The idea of having a set place to do homework and to study is not new. What is new, however, is research that says that different study locations can help students actually experience better recall. If getting up and moving around, or exploring different locations to crack open the books helps students beat the study blahs and improve recall, they should go for it! (See tip three: Know What Works For You) However, having a place where students can dump their bookbags and keep their school supplies is still a great idea—it helps them get organized, eliminates time-wasting activities such as searching for that calculator or pencil sharpener, and goes a long way to helping establish a groovy homework routine.

6. Remove Distractions. TVs. Cellphones. iPods, Computers: when it comes to homework procrastination, these are all tried-and-true tools of the trade. A student sits down to do homework and on the second question needs to Google something. Suddenly it’s an hour later and question three hasn’t been started. It’s a scenario that all students—young and old alike—are more than familiar with. If getting the homework done quickly and correctly is the name of the game, then removing distractions is key. Turn the TV off. Take the earbuds out. Step away from the laptop. If certain questions require online support, save them until the rest of the homework has been completed.

That being said, if students work better with a little background noise, then put the radio on at a low volume, (see Tip 3) and be sure that any rockin’ out isn’t distracting from the task at hand.

Has homework reached critical mass in Toronto?

Families across the greater Toronto Area will be on the edge of their seats in the upcoming weeks as they wait to hear whether or not Toronto District School Board trustees will make the groundbreaking decision to ban or restrict homework.

The fact that homework could be on the legislative chopping block at all is not that much of a surprise. Homework has been a thorn in the collective sides of parents for some time now as the sheer amount of homework that children face each night has been wrecking havoc in otherwise happy households.

Kids are stressed by the volume of homework they face every night, and parents aren’t too happy about it either.

Homework amounts seem to increase in direct relation to teacher cutbacks and classroom sizes. School boards are expected to do more with fewer resources and classroom sizes are rapidly expanding giving teachers less time to teach materials during class, which means that in order to meet grade standards, more and more homework is assigned to the student. Unable to teach the curriculum in class, teachers send it home as homework. Now legislators want to eliminate homework entirely.

Something’s gotta give.

No single set amount of time for homework will work either because kids still need some measure of individualized attention. They still need to learn how to prioritize tasks, how to be organized, and how to make sense of the work that they’ve been assigned.

How do you feel about the potential homework ban?

This letter from a parent explains how Oxford Learning helps to get the homework done.

Dear Oxford Learning,

We would like to take this opportunity to express our sincere thanks to you and your teaching associates for your remarkable accomplishments in furthering our son Mitchell’s academic capabilities. We came to you a year ago with a young boy frustrated, saddened and disillusioned with every aspect of school. We came away a year later with a young man, confident, willing to learn, to take on new challenges and complete assignments and homework in a timely and proper manner.

His entire attitude and approach to school has improved 100%. There are not enough words to covey our sincere gratitude to you and your team of professionals!

Sincerely,

D and J Burton
Evans, Georgia

Where do you stand on the homework issue?

You may have noticed that there is a lot of talk surrounding the topic of Homework. A number of books(see below) have recently appeared criticizing homework claiming that kids gain nothing from doing the tons of homework they are assigned. Some even go so far as to say that homework is waste of time. These books draw on research that suggests that, for lower grades (1-6), homework does little-to-nothing to help improve grades. However, for the upper grades there has been some research that shows that homework can help with standardized testing scores — though there isn’t much research to thoroughly prove anything.

The books:

• The Homework Myth
  by Alfie Kohn
• The Case Against Homework:
  by Sara Bennett and Nancy Kalish
• The Battle Over Homework
  by Harris Cooper

The books come at a crucial time, as parents have been saying that their children have too much homework, and that the increased amount of homework is putting stress not just on the students, but on the families too. An article on Newsday.com says that since 1981, time spent on homework is up 51 per cent.

Author Bennett agrees that too much homework hurts the whole family. “It takes away from family time, puts parents in an adversarial role with kids and interferes with the child’s ability to play and have other after-school activities.”

Parents also reported that they hate having to play the bad guy, as more often than not they have to police their children into completing assignments. Or they say that they have to devote hours of their own time in helping their kids with their homework — and that the amount of homework is destroying kids motivation and passion for learning.

But there has to be some good points to having homework, right?

Historically, teachers and parents alike have historically touted homework as being necessary to the development of good study habits, to building character, to teaching discipline, and boosting achievement. These things may be true, but author Kohn notes that they have “never been demonstrated empirically.” Kohn cautions that homework is behaviorally conditioning our children to not think for themselves, to just be obedient and do what they are told.

However, Kohn does say that homework has one solid benefit — mainly, if it is used as a tool to develop a love of reading. He also says that the point of education is to turn children into independent, critical thinkers that are responsible, happy people.

Where do you stand on the homework issue?

At one point or another we all have to pitch in a little bit to help our children complete their homework. Whether its going to the library with your daughter to get research materials, explaining fractions to your son, or quizzing them before the big test, we all want to be supportive and helpful.

And sometimes your child practices keen homework-evasive maneuvers, and then you have to turn into a homework commander, just to make sure that some homework gets done (hopefully not by you).

So what’s the solution to prevent having to do it yourself, or nagging until your throat is sore?

When it comes to homework time, a little organization and strategic planning help to make the homework hour structured, so that kids don’t have to rely on you, and so that you don’t have to put on your nagging hat.

Follow our 10 homework tips to transform the homework hour from headache to hassle-free.

Top 10 Tips to Handle Homework:

1. Set Up a Study Area—We’ve mentioned the importance of having a designated study area before—read our article on study stadiums here—create an area that is homework only, so that when your child sits in the homework area, the work gets done.
2. Make Materials Available to the Homework Area—what tools does your child need to get the homework done? Use a container or box to keep all supplies handy: paper, sharpened pencils, pen, erasers, protractors, crayons, and calculator. Anything that your child may need access to during homework should be accessed easily so that he won’t have to rummage around for it.
3. Remove the Distractions— If the study area is the dining room table, and a TV is nearby, make sure that the TV is off. Or if the area is next to a window, and the falling leaves are just too distracting, switch places, or consider a change of location. But don’t be too stringent, some people work best with a little background noise, like a radio playing quietly in the background.
4. Set a Time Frame—there is a 10 minute rule of thumb for how long homework should take: 10 minutes for grade 1, then add ten minutes for every grade that follows. Following the formula, a child in grade six should have 1 hour of homework (60 minutes); a student in grade 12 should have two hours (120 minutes). So base your time allotment roughly on this schedule, and tailor to meet your child’s needs—longer if studying for a test or for kids in advanced classes, less time for those who work quickly, or who finish the work in class.
5. Offer Guidance—but don’t do the homework for your child. Be close by, maybe sit at the table too, or in the next room, and read the newspaper, or read a book, so if your child asks a question she won’t have to go looking for you.
6. Use An Agenda— it’s the key organizational tool for homework. They remind a student of tasks to be completed, and are also a great place to write down questions to ask the teacher, or for you to leave reminders for your child like don’t forget that you have a dentist appointment at 11—remind Mr. Green!
7. Stay Informed—talk to the teacher when you can, find out about upcoming projects that may require extra help, and find out how long the teacher feels that assigned homework should take. How does your child fit into the class average — it’s good to be informed.
8. Be a Role Model! When you set about determining the homework hour, practice what you preach. If this is the hour to do the things that need to be done, then join your child in the homework area to pay the bills, for example. Set a good example by your actions, read a book, do some research, or bring something home from work to complete.
9. Offer Praise—you can never hear too much of the good stuff. Kids will appreciate that their efforts are not going unrecognized, and you’ll help bolster their confidence.
10. Watch Frustration Levels—don’t let the homework hour become the hated hour. If your child is feeling stressed by the homework, or just can’t master the concepts, then its time to seek help. Homework is unfortunately, a part of school—but it doesn’t have to be the worst part.

Read this letter from a parent on how we helped her to win the homework wars.

Dear Oxford Learning,

Homework had become the most unpleasant experience for my daughter and I. No matter how hard we both tried, our sessions always ended up with both of us screaming and then crying out of sheer frustration. With no end of the ongoing battle in sight, I decided that it was time to seek outside help. By word of mouth I was familiar with Oxford Learning Centers.

After a soothing telephone call reassuring me that I was not a terrible mother, nor the only person in such a situation, my daughter and I went into to have a look. She immediately was put at ease, as was I. Everybody we met was very pleasant and approachable. After an assessment that determined areas of strength and weaknesses, my daughter began work on a program centered specifically to her assessment findings.

Within a short time my daughter’s confidence grew and she became much more confident and independent learner. The Oxford Learning Center has taught my daughter to learn how to learn! And now, homework is no longer an issue! For this, I will be eternally grateful!

Many thanks!

Katherine Lombard
Calgary, Alberta