Websites That
Help With
Homework
Homework
15 Ways to
Support
Your Child
Dictonary.com and
Thesaurus.com
This website is a dual tool to
help students define words
and find synonyms.
— by Janeen Lewis
Quizlet.com
Provides study tools like
flashcards, games, and study
sets. Make your own or choose
from their library of topics.
BJ Pinchbeck’s Homework
Helper (bjpinchbeck.com)
This site is a homework source
started by a nine-year old boy
and his father in the late 1990s.
It links to sites that have helpful
information on a library of
topics.
Kids.gov
Intended for kids, links to
thousands of web pages from
government agencies, schools,
and educational organizations
grouped by grade level and
subject.
Factmonster.com
Find facts on a variety of school
subjects and play educational
games. Also has a dictionary,
encyclopedia, thesaurus, atlas,
almanac, and timelines.
Khanacademy.com
Includes online courses,
lessons and practice in a
variety of subjects for students
in Kindergarten through high
school. Also includes test prep
and information about college
and careers.
Meta Calculator
A graphing, scientific, matrix,
and statistics calculator
app, this will help in those
challenging upper level math
classes.
14 WNY Family September 2019
L
et’s be honest — sometimes
parents dread homework as
much as their kids do. But
homework connects parents to what
their children are learning in school, and
research shows that children are more
likely to be successful in school when
their families support them. By follow-
ing these tips, even the most homework-
challenged parents can help their chil-
dren have a successful homework year.
1) Understand the
reason for homework.
Homework reinforces what is be-
ing taught in the classroom and teaches
students important life skills – respon-
sibility, time management, and task
completion. Children should be able to
complete the work with little help from
parents, and they shouldn’t come home
with an entirely new concept to learn.
Homework should be practice or an ex-
tension of what they’ve already learned.
2) Know the teacher’s
philosophy.
Teachers have different philoso-
phies about how much homework to
assign. Some think piling on a ton of
homework helps build character. Others
think children have done enough work
during the day and don’t assign any. Un-
derstand where your child’s teacher falls
on the homework spectrum so you are
not surprised as the homework does (or
doesn’t) come home. If you are unsure
what a reasonable amount of homework
is, The National Education Association
and The National Parent Teacher As-
sociation recommend 10-20 minutes of
homework per night in the first grade,
and an additional 10 minutes per grade
after that.
3) Learn what the
homework rules are.
At Open House learn the homework
policy of the school and your child’s
teacher. What are the consequences for
lost or forgotten homework? Don’t be
quick to bail your child out every time
you get a frantic text message about for-
gotten homework. One of the purposes
of homework is to teach responsibility.
4) Get organized.
Your child should have a backpack
and homework folder to carry assign-
ments between home and school. Teach-
ers of primary students usually send
homework correspondence each night.
If your older child’s teacher doesn’t re-
quire students to record school work in
an assignment book of some kind, pro-
vide one yourself and teach your child
how to fill it out.
5) Schedule a
consistent time.
With sports, service projects, reli-
gious and community activities, it can
be hard to schedule one set time every
day to do homework. Aim for as much
consistency as possible when scheduling
homework around after-school activities.