Narrator
How do you get your kids to keep on top of their homework?

Mick Clark
Generally what I tell parents about helping their kids with homework is it should never be a conflict, it should never cause any drama.

Homework is supposed to be basically revision, the concepts have already been taught at school.

Sarah Overeem
So the majority of the time the students should be comfortable with the work that they're given.

I think the first thing with students with homework, especially at an early age, is start to set them up into a structure of when to do their homework and how best to do it.

Michelle Slee
And, ideally, you should do a little every night, but kids have huge after-school things now every night, they have football and music lessons etc, so they need to work around it. And that's part of a life skill too, isn't it, organising your life.

Sarah Overeem
I suggest to the parents of my students, that at an early age they find a time that suits the children.

So they come home and they've had a bit of time out, a bit of afternoon tea and then straight into their homework. If they have the same time every afternoon then they're aware of what's going to happen.

It's a good idea also to set a timer because they know that after 10 or  20 or 30 minutes, depending on the age of the child, that when that timers goes, if they've worked hard through that period, they can go.

Timothy Gamble
Have a clear, defined space so the kids know that it's homework time and it's time to concentrate.

Amanda Schofield
They'll need a space where that can happen, they'll need a quiet space where they can work independently. They'll also need their equipment.

Sara Chambers
Everyone's busy, but if there was 10 or 15 minutes of each afternoon to sit down and that's your time to see what's going on in your child's learning, I think that's a great opportunity to take and the more positive you can be about it, the better.

Jane Goddard
You definitely, as a parent, don't have to be a subject expert to help your child. Being interested in what they're learning about, asking what they're learning about will really help and consolidate the learning that they're doing in class.

Sarah Overeem
We really want kids to want to do homework, to want to read every night, to complete the tasks rather than punishing them for not doing homework.

Leanne Batho
I always tell parents homework is about developing independence. If you're going to be sitting there beside them every night in Kindergarten and tell them exactly what to do and how to do it, you're still going to be doing that in Year 6.

Sarah Overeem
When we set projects we really want to see what the students are able to do. There's no point for us receiving any work that has been done by anyone other than the student.

Sara Chambers
Because the teacher might be thinking, "Homework's all great. I'm getting all this homework back at the end of the week. Little Betty's doing wonderfully". Tick, tick, tick. But in fact Mum might have been helping Betty a lot and so the teacher's not getting a good idea of what Betty's capable of doing at home.

Sarah Overeem
And if the child's not able to understand the task then we need to be able to address it in class.

Amanda Schofield
If it gets to Thursday night and your child is having a meltdown around homework you need to determine straight away if it's a time management issue, or a mathematical content issue.

It's never worth tears and it's never worth building up a barrier against it. Best to write a note and say, "We tried. We couldn't do it. Can you spend a bit of time with this child to help them get over the hurdle?"

Simone King
I always think that if it's going to be too much trouble for the family and too stressful you need to come and speak to the classroom teacher and see what you can do about it. Each different teacher will have a different answer and a different way to approach it.

Narrator
Also, have a look at the many fact sheets, glossaries and step by step Homework Helper videos for parents at www.schoolatoz.com.au