Parents do the most to help their child succeed. From teaching them how to ride a bike, teaching them responsibility of money, or helping them with their schoolwork. And sometimes it gets difficult to help them in these situations, especially when it comes to schoolwork.

Parents have this unofficial duty to coach their children with their homework. Things like projects, essays, reports, or tests are just some of the work children ask for help on. But plenty of parents often find it difficult to remember or even understand subjects like social studies, math, and science and it’s like learning a second language. Sometimes the methods and subjects are wildly different from what you learned when you were a kid; so trying to help your child might be a bit difficult.

Here are a few ways to stay ahead of the game and become your child’s MVP when it comes to homework.

1. Keep Calm and Carry On

When your child struggles with schoolwork, everything can turn into a disaster. The stress levels of schoolwork definitely affect their personal life and it may seem they are going through a tough time worrying about their grades. It is the parent’s responsibility to help and manage this stress without adding more to their life.

Setting an example of cool, calm, and collected will put them at ease and helping them will be a much more productive experience. Instead of pressuring them to finish their homework, give positive reinforcement that you will help them as much as you can. Allow them to voice their struggles and reassure them it’s okay to be frustrated, but you will help them. They will feel more relaxed and things might start to come together for them, they just need you to be there for them.

2. Speak to Their Teacher

Student’s workloads vary from subject to subject and level to level, but too much homework will always be too much homework to your child. Some of them run away from copious amounts math problems or book reports that take weeks to complete.

Starting a conversation with their teacher is important to know what the expectations are and whether it’s appropriate or could use some work. They will understand more how a student copes with these things and may also give you insight into how you can help them better.

3. Set a Good Example

Kids often mimic and copy things that they see, it is just a part of human nature. So as parents, remember they are very impressionable and that they subtly learn from things you do. Try to be more productive in the house, work diligently and efficiently from household chores to filing paperwork and bills. The impression kids will get is that you are a hard worker and that they should also work hard.

4. Expend All Your Resources

Not understanding the material can certainly be a roadblock for parents and this is completely normal. With a little research and time, there are many ways to help them still. From online forums to Wikipedia, these resources can help you help them with almost anything.

There are even some websites that offer to do homework tasks for you for a fee. As a parent, you can check this work and try to understand it and relay this information to your child. Some sites even provide you a detailed analysis of the work done to help you understand. Some might see as paying for homework irrational and useless, but when it's crunch time and you need help fast, it might be your only option for homework help.

5. Create a Good Environment

Kids all learn and study in all different ways, but also get distracted in all different ways. As a parent, minimizing the distractions and creating a workable environment is important for optimizing learning for your child. This means setting away unnecessary things like TV or a Computer for a short time, making sure things are quiet in the house, and even leaving them alone to do their homework in peace.

6. Encourage Help from Peers

Having friends to study and do homework with might prove to be more effective as they all have similar goals to accomplish and feel comfortable doing it with a friend. Encourage them to create a study group or even a group chat where their peers can connect and share information and ideas. Surrounding them with friends that are also motivated will definitely help your child with their homework.

7. Find a Tutor

If your child is still having trouble with homework, don't be afraid to call for a tutor. They are the most qualified to give individual help to your child to succeed. Private tutors may cost a bit more, but maybe finding a group tutoring session is also possible. You are not the only one going through this problem, there are other students who struggle to do their work as well.

8. Praise their Work

When a child struggles with work, they get frustrated and unmotivated. But when a child is praised for their work, they seem to do better and work harder. Positive reinforcement allows your child to understand that good work doesn’t go unnoticed. Kids like to see their achievements praised, so take their good test scores and put them on the fridge, frame their paintings they made in class, make them feel that you are proud of them.

Parents have a tough job, and it only gets tougher. But hopefully all these tips will help you lighten the load and help you help your child with their homework. At the end of the day, what matters is that you are being a parent for your child in all circumstances and that they feel that.