Setting Priorities for Schoolwork
Help your child learn to set priorities for his schoolwork. Some of your child's homework is probably easy for her; some is quite difficult. Some requires her to do things that she doesn't enjoy, but some tasks might be fun. Some of the homework is important to help your child master a particular skill or learn required material; some is mere busywork, assigned mostly for the sake of having the child do something.
Your job is to help your child learn to sort her work so that homework can be completed in the most efficient manner possible. When your child is very young, this may means that you make the decisions for her; as she grows older, she will better be able to make these choices on her own.
Encourage your child to complete all assignments that are easy or fun whether or not they seem useful. Typically, an art project might fit this category. If the project is likely to absorb your child's interest for a long time, have him begin work on it after the more difficult work is completed.
FACT
One bright third grader with dyslexia asked his teacher to allow him to write one sentence containing all twelve weekly spelling words, rather than a separate sentence for each word. The boy enjoyed the challenge of trying to pack all the words in the list into one or two very silly sentences, and the teacher looked forward to reading the very creative and often amusing results. What had once been frustrating was turned into a fun and challenging game.
Difficult work should be attempted only if it is educationally useful to your child. That is, if the assignment seems to be busy work with no apparent purpose, do not force your child to complete it; instead, ask the teacher the purpose of the assignment. Understanding the purpose will provide a guide for development of appropriate modifications. If the assignment seems to be useful for other children but doesn't help your child — look for an alternative that will achieve the same goal. For example, a teacher may ask that a child write a separate sentence for each word on a spelling list, with the idea that this will help children know the meaning of the words and give them writing practice. For your child, sentence-writing may be so overwhelming that there is no time left to study and learn the spelling words; your child might do better to focus on studying and writing the individual spelling words, and dictating sentences or writing short definitions instead.
You and your child might also find the task of managing homework easier if the teacher provides a weekly assignments sheet listing all homework to be completed by the end of the week, rather than ask for separate assignments each day. This will help you plan for assignments that are likely to be more time consuming by spreading the work out over several days.
