How to Be Patient When Doing Homework with Your Young Child

- Decide what you want, and what you need to do. Do you want your child to get good grades? Do you want him to understand the material well? Write out your goals on an index card.

- Determine your child's learning style. Many children don't process visual information well, but are quick to learn if the material is spoken out loud.

- Decide before you start how much time you're going to devote to helping with homework. Set an egg timer so that you don't have to worry about running over.

- When you sit down to help your child with an assignment, look over it first.

- Let your child do as much as he can. This is the hardest step. The assignment looks so easy to you, you want to jump in and tell him how to do it.

- Resist the temptation to tell him the answer when he's stuck. Instead, ask leading questions.

- At the end of the assignment (or your allotted time, whichever comes first) find something you can praise your child about.

- Maybe he finished it in less time than you expected, or got most of the answers on the first try. Complimenting not only will make him feel good, it will make you feel like your time was well spent.