Parent Tip Sheet
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Homework and Time Management
Help your child select one place in your home to study. It should be a place where the
child functions best. It should:
 have good lighting
 include a table and comfortable chair
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Make sure your child has the materials needed for study. Provide any special materials.
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Encourage your child to keep the work area well organized.
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Regulate distractions such as radio, television, friends, and telephone. Some students
function perfectly well with a bit of background noise.
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Check your child's Assignment Calendar. Look over homework periodically to be aware
of what your child is doing in school. Check notebooks for organization. Ask to see
graded work.
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Review assignments with your child by asking for a retelling of the directions.
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Help your child believe that a task can be completed. Encourage your child to ask
questions. Think positively!
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Give assistance if necessary, but don't do the homework yourself. It is your child's
responsibility.
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You may occasionally want to sit with your child while homework is being done and take
care of your own work (bills, letters, mending, etc.)
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Periodically ask your child about long-range projects. These are often assigned at the start
of a grading period. Use a monthly calendar and help your child to post due dates for
these projects.
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Help your child budget time, break large assignments into smaller pieces and set goals.
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Include time in your child’s study schedule for breaks.
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Encourage your child to review a bit each day rather than cram the night before a test.
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If your child is having difficulty with homework, seems to have too much homework, or
insists there is no homework, check with the teacher.
Parent Tip Sheet
Listening Skills
 Really listen to your child when conversing. Use direct eye
contact and respond specifically. Be a role model for good
listening behavior.
 When giving your child directions, state them clearly and
concisely. See that your instructions are followed. Ask your
child to repeat your instructions if there is any uncertainty
about what you have said.
 After watching an educational television show together, have
your child summarize the main points.
 Help your child to be alert in school. Set a definite bedtime
and stick to it. Make sure your child eats three well balanced
meals a day. Breakfast is especially important. See that your
child takes part in some vigorous physical activity each day.
WITH PRACTICE, YOUR CHILD CAN DEVELOP EXCELLENT
LISTENING SKILLS.
PARENT TIP SHEET
FOLLOWING DIRECTIONS
 Include a discussion of the importance of following directions when
participating in a variety of situations:
o
o
o
o
o
o
driving a car
taking medications
cooking
constructing a model or building a home
completing a task at work
completing assignments at school
 Talk about the consequences of altering directions and the negative results of
not following directions as they are given.
 Write a note giving directions to your child for finding a treat that you have
hidden.
 Remind your child to:
o Read or listen to all directions before starting a task.
o Repeat the directions orally to himself.
o Ask questions if the directions are unclear.
o Be aware of key words to follow.
o Break assignments into small steps.
o Organize the steps in the order in which they should be completed.
o Resist the temptation to change the directions or the order in which
they should be followed.
 Have your child follow directions to complete a task such as fixing a broken
item, washing clothes, following a recipe, etc. Ask your child to restate the
directions and note the steps taken to complete the task.
PARENT TIP SHEET
SELF-CONCEPT AND MOTIVATION
 Take time each day to find out what your child is doing in school and what
good things happened that day. Be sure to show an interest in academic as
well as social activities.
 Recognize when your child experiences a success – even a small one.
Reflect back to them the effort that must have taken. Say , “Look how hard
you worked” or, “Hard work pays off!” or, “You couldn’t do that two
weeks ago!”
 Show that you care. Be available to check homework or answer questions.
Occasionally sit with your child and read or work on your own papers during
study time.
 Help your child accept responsibility for completing assignments. Your
child should be writing assignments daily in their planner.
 See your child's teacher if any study problems are being experienced.
 Encourage your child to locate correct answers for items missed on a test.
Help your child figure out WHY these were missed. Also celebrate the
number of answers your child answered correctly – especially ones you
know they struggled with during their study time.
This helps your child feel more positive about test-taking.
PARENT TIP SHEET
SQ3R AS A STUDY METHOD
The SQ3R method is a most effective approach to studying. The five steps may be
used to read textbooks, magazines, newspapers, and other informational materials.
The five steps are:
S= SURVEY
Before reading, the student looks over
the material to be read. Headings,
subheadings, pictures, maps, graphs,
etc. are noted at this time.
Q= QUESTION
The student changes each heading
into a question and writes it on a
separate sheet of paper.
R=READ
The student reads each section in the
selection and looks for the answers to
the questions that were written.
R=RECITE
R=REVIEW
After reading each section, the student
asks and answers the question that
was written out loud.
After reading the whole selection, the
student tries to answer all of the
questions from memory and reviews
all of the important ideas in the
selection.
PARENT TIP SHEET
WRITING
 Share good writing with your child by reading aloud from your favorite
selections.
 Give your child opportunities to write at home by:
o
o
o
o
adding to a grocery list
writing family messages
writing notes to relatives, friends
using a chalkboard or whiteboard
 Encourage your child to write one sentence from an assigned chapter and to
tell how the sentence relates to the entire chapter.
 Read your child's writing.
 Write fun notes back and forth between you and your child – have fun!
Leave them in unexpected places for each other.
PARENT TIP SHEET
READING ACROSS THE CURRICULUM
READING
 LOOK at each page of the lesson
o Read headings
o Look at pictures, maps, and
graphs
 ASK questions. Make questions out of
the headings. Read the questions in
your book. Think of answers before
you start reading. Now READ. Look
for the answer to your questions
 Close your eyes after you read each
section. SAY the ideas in your own
words.
 When you have finished reading, close
your book
o Try to REMEMBER important
facts
o Open your book. How well did
you remember?
MATH FACTS.
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Look at the symbol. What do you have
to do? (+, -, x, +)
What is not known? 8+4=?, 8+?=12
Work through the sample problem(s).
Are all the problems the same?
WORD PROBLEMS
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First read for the idea.
Reread to get all the information.
Put the problem in your own words.
Picture what is happening in the word story
What facts in the word story will help solve
the question?
 Decide whether to add, subtract, multiply or
divide.
SCIENCE
 LOOK for the main idea.
o Read the headings.
o Look at all pictures, charts, and
graphs.
o Read any questions in the book.
 Carefully READ all the words. Look for
details about the main idea.
o WHAT? WHEN? HOW? WHY?
 If you don't know what a word means:
o Reread the complete sentence.
o Look for the parts of the word you
know
o Look up the word in the glossary.
o Look up the word in the
dictionary.
 What do you already know?
 Ask yourself what new ideas you have
learned?
SOCIAL STUDIES
 Look for the main idea.
o Read the headings.
o Look at all pictures, maps, charts
and graphs.
o Read captions.
o Read any questions about the main
idea.
 Look for details about the main idea.
o Who?
o Where?
o What?
o When?
o Why?
PARENT TIP SHEET: READING ACROSS THE CURRICULUM, cont.
SPELLING (for problem words)
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LOOK carefully at a word that is hard for you.
SAY the word.
COPY the word.
TRACE over the letters as you say the word again.
Close your eyes and try to SEE the word in your mind.
WRITE the word from memory.
CHECK your spelling.
WRITE the word three (3) times.
ENGLISH---WRITING
 THINK
o What are you writing about?
o What do you already know about the topic?
o List some of your ideas to help you later.
 THINK
o What do you want to say?
o Whom are you saying it to?
o What is the main thing you want to say about the topic?
 Now, WRITE,WRITE,WRITE.
o Don’t worry about mistakes in spelling, punctuation and wording now.
 READ what you’ve written.
o Check your
 Spelling
 Punctuation
 REWRITE. Copy your paper again, making it as neat and correct as possible.
DIRECTIONS:
OVER THE NEXT 5 DAYS, KEEP A RECORD OF YOUR STUDY HABITS BY PLACING
A CHECK MARK BESIDE EACH STUDY HABIT YOU DO. BE HONEST!!!
STUDY HABITS
DAY
1
DAY
2
DAY
3
DAY
4
DAY TOTAL
5
HAVE ASSIGMENTS LISTED IN
PLANNER
HAVE MATERIALS READY BEFORE
STARTING
HAVE A SPECIAL PLACE TO STUDY
WITH GOOD LIGHTING
PLAN A SPECIFIC TIME TO STUDY
BEFOREHAND
STICK TO AN ASSIGNMENT (EVEN IF
IT'S HARD) UNTIL ALL WORK IS
COMPLETED
ALLOW PEOPLE OR THINGS (PHONE,
DOOR BELL, PETS) TO INTERRUPT
YOU WHILE STUDYING.
TAKE A SHORT BREAK AFTER 30
MINUTES OF WORK.
CHECK OVER WORK CAREFULLY
PUT WORK AND MATERIALS WHERE
YOU WILL REMEMBER TO BRING
THEM TO SCHOOL.
IF YOU CONSISTENTLY HAVE TROUBLE IN ONE OR MORE AREAS LET MRS.
BRESNAN (COUNSELOR) KNOW.