Why Does Homework Have to Be Such a Struggle?

As a mother of a first grader, I have to say that I really didn't expect to have issues with homework quite so early. I can remember the days of dreading homework, but that was when I had to write a book report or do some horrible chemistry assignment. Well, let me just tell you that homework for some first graders must be the worst punishment in the world. We have tears and tears and tears for something that could be done in ten minutes if my son would just sit down and do it. He doesn't realize that he's wasting time by throwing a fit.

Here's the funny thing about this situation. The homework is the same each week. On Monday they have to write their spelling words five times each, Tuesday and Thursday are math days and on Wednesday they write sentences with their words. He's been doing this since August. So he knows how easy it is and how long it would take him to do it. Yet he still insists on this whole fit throwing.

I tried making it as easy as possible. I figured if we had a schedule then he should be good, right? Wrong! I tried letting him come home and play for an hour and then it was time to start. That was a nightmare because seven-year-old boys can play outside forever. So then I decided that he'd grab a snack and sit down right when he got home to do it and then he could play afterwards. Well, kids don't really want to come straight home from school and have to sit down and do homework. I just thought getting it out of the way might help.

So here I was at the end of my rope. Nothing was working. I started asking around and I felt a little bit better when I found out that other mothers were having the same problem. They would tell me that their kids shed tears, etc also. I still had to come up with a solution to fix this problem so our evenings would run a bit smoother. My son is huge into Star Wars right now and he's just found out about comic books. He really wants to start reading Star Wars comic books. So, we've come up with an idea that might help cure the homework problem. He can pick what time he wants to do his homework each night. I'm not going to press the issue. A timer will be set for thirty minutes when he starts. He has exactly thirty minutes each day to complete his homework. If he can do this for a whole week then we'll go out and buy him a comic book.

I'll let you know how this works out. If he wants his comic book bad enough then I'm assuming it will go over well. And if not, then it's back to the drawing board!