Homework Help: 5 Reasons to Get Started Now
Who loves homework? We do! But we're guessing that your child probably doesn't--and maybe you're not a fan of it as a parent or grandparent, either. We get it: Homework is time consuming, often confusing, and oh so easy to forget in a backpack all weekend or on the bus home from school.
Whether you appreciate homework or despise it, the fact is it is a cornerstone of your child's academic success. We understand that it can be difficult to help your student make time for it--and we also know that when it comes to helping your student actually complete an assignment, sometimes you need an expert to step in.
At the Academic Achievement Center, we've always got time for homework--and we've got experts on
hand to help your student get the job done.
Here are five reasons why you might want to consider regular homework sessions with us this semester:
Reason 1: Homework Starts Early
When you think of homework, you might recall high school or college as being the era of late-night assignments. But if you're the parent of a young child, you already know that homework starts long before that--as early as first grade, in many cases.
Regardless of the pros and cons of giving homework at all grade levels, it can be difficult to instill in children the importance of getting their assignments done. For very young students, homework might be simply a foreign concept, while for older students it's just one of the many things on their ever-growing to-do list. When you factor in fluctuating emotional maturity, family commitments, social pressures, extracurricular activities, and daily classes, it's easy to understand why homework can get put on the back burner at any age.
To help your child cope with everything else going on in their life, we encourage tutoring sessions to cover homework. We work with kindergartners, high school seniors, and everything in between--so whether it's an art project or a paper on global politics, we've got you covered.
Reason 2: Homework Helps Form Healthy Habits
The right approach to homework can help your child form habits that will serve them throughout every stage of life, both personally and professionally. Our tutors use homework sessions as an opportunity to teach life skills like time management and organization, which can help your student succeed whether they become a homemaker or a rocket scientist.
As part of homework help, our tutors can utilize lessons from our study skills curriculum. With this we can teach your student how to productively use their time and energy through strategies like key-word recognition, short-hand notes, flashcards, and more. These skills can in turn be applied to studying for tests, preparing for presentations, and so much more.
A consistent schedule is key to helping students stay on top of their work while developing good habits. When your child sees us once or twice a week for dedicated homework help, they can form habits that will eventually allow them to succeed without outside support.
Reason 3: Missing Homework Means Failing Grades
We frequently have students come to the AAC as a result of low or failing grades. When we assess the student or talk with them one-on-one, our tutors often find that the student actually has an excellent grasp of the subject or subjects they're struggling with grade-wise.
In these cases, the usual factor throwing a student's performing off is--you guessed it!--homework. Depending on the grade level and rubric, a handful of missing assignments can quickly take an A to an F. The sheer volume of classes students have in middle school and high school makes it easy to miss an assignment here and there, especially when many of those classes assign homework multiple times a week.
Some teachers allow students to turn in past-due assignments for full or partial credit--which can benefit your student if they have fallen behind. We are more than happy to help your student catch up, but we strongly suggest creating a dedicated time and space for homework before missing assignments impact their grades. You'll be amazed at the changes in a child's attitude about homework in particular and school in general when they are on top of their assignments and earning outstanding grades.
In addition to learning invaluable skills like time management, homework help can also keep your child's grades at a level that better reflects their abilities. When missing assignments aren't an issue, you can more readily identify where your student is truly struggling and where they are excelling.
Reason 4: Homework Is Challenging
Homework seems to get more and more difficult every year! Even at the middle school level, math homework can be hard to navigate, especially if your student is learning a method you yourself did not learn in school. Maybe writing is not your strong suit, or perhaps you struggle to give presentations in front of a group--yet you're faced with a child who needs your help in exactly those areas.
Don't panic! We know that individuals are not experts in every subject, which is exactly why we hire professionals with diverse backgrounds. We have experts in technology, language arts, science, math, and more, with experience across the entire school spectrum. Your elementary student will work with one tutor for reading help, for example, while a tutor with an entirely different specialization will help a high school junior prepping for a physics final.
You can trust that our tutors are savvy about the many different standards and strategies at play in schools today. We are dedicated to helping students thrive in the current academic environment. Rather than trying to become an expert overnight in a subject you haven't studied since high school, you can rest assured that we're the resource your student needs to get their homework done.
Reason 5: Homework Is Just One Piece of the Puzzle
Getting homework turned in on time is important, it's true--but it's even more important that your student understands the material.
Most classrooms are busy. They can be crowded. Teachers only have so much attention they can give to an individual student. Even if someone isn't fully understanding a concept, eventually the class must move on in order to stick to a schedule. If a student doesn't grasp a portion of a lesson, it's unfortunately a slippery slope to becoming complete lost. This is especially true of subjects that build on each previous concept, like math or science.
Homework help at the AAC can be an excellent time for your student to go over the details of what they're learning in school. Our tutors can quickly see during a homework session what a student is and isn't understanding, which allows us to tailor our approach to ensure we review any difficult areas. This might mean we go over a chapter from a text book together, do worksheets that cover similar problems, or work on prompts that exercise your student's mind in a particular area. When a student understands each new concept as they're learning it, they can focus on what comes next rather than frantically playing catch-up every week.
A dedicated tutoring time allows your student to complete their homework, keep their grades up, review difficult material, and develop habits that can help them succeed. It can also remove a large amount of stress from their daily classroom experience: When students know they have an expert to guide them through their homework during a certain time each week, they can focus on in-class work without panicking over a lack of time or understanding. We believe that developing a positive attitude towards homework is more than half the battle, so we would be thrilled to help your student at any grade level with any assignment. Give us a call today to get started on your child's personalized success plan.
