Returning Homework to School on Time
Returning Homework to School on Time
| By | Dr. Sam Goldstein |
| Dr. Sydney Zentall |
Although most parents devote most much of their energy to helping children complete assignments, some children struggle to develop the independent skills necessary just to return completed homework. They may have completed homework at school or at home but misplaced it, or missed the teacher’s instructions to turn it in, or forgot to bring the assignment to school. Children who forget to bring homework to school should first try keeping a homework folder in their backpack. When the homework is finished each night, help your child develop the habit of putting the homework in the folder and in the backpack at night to be returned to school the next day. You may need to remind your child in the morning to look over assignments due that day.
When children experience difficulty remembering to turn in assignments, you may also want to contact your child’s teacher to develop a system to cue the child to turn homework in. Eventually this cuing system can be reduced. A fourth grade teacher with whom we worked, placed a blue index card on every student’s desk each morning. The card was a cue to remind the students to place their homework in the blue bin. The cards were placed in a smaller bin next to the homework.
A more independent system to remind your child to remember to turn in homework is to create an assignment tracking sheet. Your child should develop the skill to mark assignments in each subject when they are due and whether a book, notebook, or worksheet needs to be brought home to complete the assignment. This assignment sheet could serve as a checklist for assignments that have been turned in, as well.
