5 Homework Tips and Tools That Can Really Help Your Child (and You!)
Reeling from the most recent parent-teacher conference? Battling day in and day out to get your child to complete and turn in homework? You’re not alone! Parents just like you are searching for new tools and ideas to make homework time less stressful, easier, and well, more fun! Our friends at “Inspire” by Gamer Parents!, have 5 great tips to revolutionize your homework world – check it out:
1. Use Online Flash Cards: “Inspire” by GamerParents is bringing a whole new twist to the digital flash card movement. What if your child had to answer a multiple choice flash card on their phone in order to return to the game they were playing or the Instagram feed they were checking out? Inspire’s patent-pending technology gives parents the tools to help their kids study anytime, anywhere – the Inspire apps literally override any other app your kid is using and locks it until they answer the question.
With an intuitive, inexpensive online toolkit from "Inspire", parents and students can quickly build their arsenal of digital flashcards based on the subject and curriculum they’re using in class. Parents can then set up a framework for when and how often kids see the flashcards on their devices based on how well kids answer them, i.e., if the student answers a question wrong, Inspire's responsive timer will subtract 3 minutes from the timer's time and next flash card will appear 3 minutes earlier than normal. If the user answers a question correctly than the timer will add 2 minutes to the time allowed to play. Learn more
2. Study, Don’t Cram: Did you know it’s been scientifically proven that you are more likely to retain important information in your long-term memory through the spaced repetition and reinforcement of that information over time (versus cramming it all at once)? A great homework tip for truly helping your kids . . . regularly reviewing material that they will be quizzed or tested on. A University of California study revealed that 90% of students who studied with flashcards using this spaced repetition method performed better on the exam than their ‘cramming’ counterparts. Learn more on Examtime.com.
3. Use the Cloud: In the digital age, there’s no room for “I left it at school” excuses. Free cloud sharing platforms like GoogleDocs and Dropbox make it easy for students, especially high schoolers, to work on and save homework papers, projects, presentations, you name it - and access them from anywhere at any time. Help your kid securely create their own cloud sharing account so they can enjoy doing their homework in their favorite surroundings outside of the house – school, the library, a coffee shop, you name it. Bonus tip: “Inspire” by Gamer Parents turns all devices into truly, smart devices with digital flashcards that make it easy for kids to study wherever they are. Learn more
4. Switch It Up: Understanding how we learn can be key to overcoming homework struggles at home. KQED.org shares in their Mind/Shift article, How Does the Brain Learn Best? Smart Studying Strategies, that varying study environment and schedules can help reinforce the learning material your child’s brain is covering. If your child gets stuck on a problem for a long time, taking a walk, even hopping on social media for a minute can allow for “mental incubation” of the material and incite flashes of insight towards solving it. The article shares that even “Quizzing oneself on new material, such as by reciting it aloud from memory or trying to tell a friend about it, is a far more powerful way to master information than just re-reading it, according to work by researchers including Henry Roediger III and Jeffrey Karpicke.”
5. Open Access to Classmates: Find easy, accessible ways for your child to communicate with other classmates on homework, projects, and even tutoring time. Skype is a great free tool with secure log-in that allows your student to call their classmate for free over the internet and even share their computer screen if working on a presentation together. Group messaging apps like Voxer and GroupMe can also assist your student in connecting with other classmates about school-related work; and Remind connects teachers with students via simple, secure SMS messaging on their mobile device. Are you a teacher? Learn how "Inspire" by Gamer Parents! can be used to help your students study more successfully! Click here
Bonus tip: Homework overload is an all-to-common reality for students even as young as kindergarten. The success of completing and turning in loads of after-school assignments can affect a young person’s attitude, stress levels and self-confidence in a negative way. When it comes to homework time, make sure your child has some voice in when and where homework gets done – making it their choice helps foster a positive environment for them to receive encouragement and focus on homework they’re choosing to complete themselves.
“Inspire” by Gamer Parents! is a great tool to help your child study over an extended amount of time, even when they’re using their phone for something else. Not to mention, there isn't a day that goes by in which a student cannot use Inspire - school breaks, snow days, sick days, etc, all students can learn at their own pace with Inspire and never lose progress! Learn more
