As a mum, you’re always teaching your kids more about the world. One of the most important things you’ll help your kids learn throughout life has to do with their work ethic. How do you prepare your kids for working life as adults?
A good way to help kids prepare is to treat their schoolwork like work. After all, at the end of the day, school is basically a workplace for kids. By understanding a bit more about how homework varies between states, you can do that even more effectively.
1: Understand How Homework Increases Through the Years
Homework changes dramatically by year. Nationally, kids tend to receive more homework in higher grades.
- The national average for elementary and middle school homework is 42.4 minutes per day.
- The national average for high school homework is 78 minutes per day.
- The national average for college homework is 116 minutes per day.
With these changes, you can understand, for example, that your kids will probably need more homework support in high school than in middle school.
2: Determine Homework Differences by States
Homework also varies by state. Different states tend toward having either more or less homework.
- Elementary and middle school homework varies from 30 minutes daily in Nevada, Kansas, and Rhode Island to 56 minutes daily in California.
- High school homework varies from 60 minutes daily in Utah, Rhode Island, and Kansas to 110 minutes daily in Vermont.
- College homework varies from 85 minutes daily in Delaware to 141.3 minutes daily in Idaho.
High school students tend to be disproportionately affected by this; kids in Vermont have, on average, more homework every day than college kids in 17 states.
3: Don’t Downplay How Much Your Kids Work
It’s tempting to feel like your kids have it easy. After all, you probably also had a lot of homework when you were a kid, and you got through it as well. However, to build a good work ethic, you need to respect your kids’ work.
Remember, kids are only just learning how to handle workloads. Respect the fact that these workloads are difficult for kids to handle. The more you treat your kids’ work like work, and afford it the same amount of respect other adults afford your work, the more you’ll instill a strong work ethic.
4: Give Your Kids Options
A big problem with homework is that there’s not really evidence to indicate its overarching efficacy. On a state level, higher homework amounts don’t correlate to an increase in either SAT scores or GPA, which both tend to relate to someone’s future prospects.
What does that mean for you? Don’t just make your kids do more homework for no reason. Encourage them to work smarter, not harder; help them invest in tutoring, which has measurable positive effects, or help them find online resources, which can benefit them even more. They’ll carry those “street smarts” into adulthood.
5: Prioritize Your Mental Health and Theirs
Remember, kids can have just as much mental stress from their work as you can from yours. When you prioritize mental health for yourself and allow your kids the same freedom, you’re teaching them that mental health is important. That’ll prove immensely important when they actually enter the job force.
When you have a bad day, you may need to call in to work and take a vacation day to handle it. Work with your kids to do the same. When you treat your children’s work like work, you legitimize it in an important way.
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