8 Successful Ways to Help Students Complete Homework

Posted by Erica Warren on Jul 17, 2023

After a long day of school, many kids are cognitively spent and they have little patience and energy to pull out their assignment pad and slog through more academic work. Often, what should take little time, drags out into hours and hours and families are often desperate for manageable solutions.

What Can We Do to Make Homework a Manageable Task?

Stop calling it homework! Just the name can trigger pouty moods and cantankerous behaviors. Find another word to use such as assignments or activities.
Use a timer to help some students stay on track. I usually set the timer for both completing assignments and taking breaks. If students have a competitive nature, you can also use a timer to see how fast they can complete a few problems, and then see if they can beat their time. This often creates a motivating game that can help them to maintain attention on the task at hand.
Create a structured routine. Make an afternoon and early evening schedule that includes blocks of time for assignments, eating, and even unstructured play time.
Accommodate your child's best ways of learning. You can learn more about this by CLICKING HERE.

Pair pleasantries with the process. For instance, one can prepare healthy snacks and tasty drinks and also collect favorite pillows, fidget toys... that can be used to calm and soothe the mind.
Create an optimal spot for completing assignments. Have fun designing a study space that has all the resources, light, and materials. For instance, be creative and create a cool study loft, with a pillow corner for reading, a desk and Zenergy Ball chair with color-coded cubbies and bins filled with markers and colorful paper.
Use erasable Frixion markers, pens and highlighters when completing assignments. Brining color into assignments can often increase the fun factor.
Take kinesthetic, brain breaks to help high energy students manage their get up and go nature.

Executive Functioning Coaching

Where Can I Get Ready Made Materials?

You can check out the Executive Functioning Activities Library by clicking on the image below!

You can also consider Planning, Time Management, and Organization for Success. This digital download bundle for elementary through college students offers quick and easy approaches/handouts for students to learn and master executive functioning skills. The areas of focus are:

planning time management and organization for success publication

the recording of homework assignments with a large selection of editable agendas
checklists and to-do lists
planning for long-term assignments
writing organizers and strategies
reading strategies
math computation strategies
motivation
memory strategies
note taking
test taking

These materials were all created over a twenty five year period in my private practice as an educational therapist. What’s more, the materials are varied and accommodate learners of all ages from elementary to college. Finally, get a free sample handouts from the publication, as well as view a free video on executive functioning. Click Here

Cheers, Dr. Erica Warren

Dr. Erica Warren is the author, illustrator, and publisher of multisensory educational materials at Good Sensory Learning. She is also the director of Learning to Learn and Learning Specialist Courses.