How to help students with homework stress is a subject that comes up often in our tutoring.
A recent Stanford University study found that homework stress was a growing problem, and that the average student was given three hours of homework each night. They revealed that over half of the kids listed homework as the number one stressor in their lives, and that excessive homework was directly connected with higher stress levels, and health problems.
Most alarmingly, they concluded that “we found a clear connection between the students’ stress and physical impacts — migraines, ulcers, and other stomach problems, sleep deprivation, exhaustion, and weight loss.”
The amount of work that students are given is often just too much, but that is a subject for another post. What we would like to focus on is how to deal with what they are facing. Here are some basic guidelines that might help to lessen the stress levels of students and parents.
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Timing is Important
When possible don’t let them start homework too late. This can be challenging, especially when having to factor in extra curricular activities. If a student has two or three hours of homework, then getting started at 9:00 is a recipe for disaster. The earlier they can get started, the better for everyone.
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Build in breaks
It may seem counterintuitive, but taking breaks can often times help work get done more effectively. If they can get used to the idea of utilizing breaks for texting friends, checking Facebook, or watching a little TV, then there is less chance they are doing that while they are studying.
Eat
Make sure they are not just snacking, but getting a full meal. It’s very difficult to learn or to operate at our capacity if we aren’t well nourished. Taking the time to eat a good dinner should not be optional. As an added benefit, it is also a great time to connect as a family.
Homework at School
When at all possible, utilize at school time for homework. Kids often times have a free block at school, an after school program, or some other resource they can utilize. The more work that can be done before they get home, the better for everyone.
These ideas won’t change the amount of homework they have, but they just might make a difference in terms of the stress levels that can accompany that work.
Written by Alan Houghtaling, EvolveTutoring.com
