Feature

Tip of the week: How to help a kid with homework

Don’t demonstrate; Avoid saying “wrong”; Don’t praise intelligence; Forget modesty

Don’t demonstrate. If your child is struggling with an assignment, resist doing it for him. Instead, have him explain, step by step, how he thinks he might work through it.

Avoid saying “wrong.” This one word halts a child’s thought process and “puts you in control.” Instead say, “I see what you’re thinking, but let’s try it like this.”

Don’t praise intelligence. If you tell your child how smart she is when she gets something correct, you’ll “set her up to think she’s no longer smart the next time she fails.” Better to applaud how much she’s learning, and to help her see how new skills can be used in the real world.

Forget modesty. If you struggled with a subject back in your youth, keep it to yourself. Sharing such information can reduce your child’s self-confidence and faith in your ability to help.

Source: Men’s Health

Recommended

A company made a meatball from lab-grown woolly mammoth, and you can't try it
Mammoth meatball
'extinct protein'

A company made a meatball from lab-grown woolly mammoth, and you can't try it

6 marvelous homes with great kitchens
House
Feature

6 marvelous homes with great kitchens

The Check-In: How to plan a trip to Antarctica
Penguins on an iceberg
Feature

The Check-In: How to plan a trip to Antarctica

The Week contest: Seaweed invasion
sargassum seaweed.
Feature

The Week contest: Seaweed invasion

Most Popular

How to watch 5 planets align in the night sky on Tuesday
Moon, Jupiter, Venus.
skyline

How to watch 5 planets align in the night sky on Tuesday

'Rewilding' animals could help combat climate change, study finds
Two gray wolves.
where the wild things are

'Rewilding' animals could help combat climate change, study finds

The snowmelt in California could cause a long-lost lake to re-emerge
flooding in Corcoran, California.
lost lake

The snowmelt in California could cause a long-lost lake to re-emerge