Help me with my Homework Mum

I sat down last night to help my youngest with her homework.

“Well Mum I have 3 assignments there is SOOOOOO much to do and I don’t know what my teacher wants “she cried. Ok, I’m an ex Teacher I can do that….

“What are the assignments and what do you have a problem with” I asked her. She went on for 10 minutes spinning her wheels on everything from she didn’t have the enough information on her first projects, didn’t have the right paper for her poster and she just didn’t know what she had to do with the last project “AT ALL”. She was confused, I get that, a lot of children can get that way when confronted with the mounting list of homework. But I’m an ex Teacher I can handle that….

“Tell me what the most important assignment is”. I thought this was the best place to start. Well that confused her even more. “Important how?” She just looked at me with that blank stare and if I didn’t move and think fast I was going to have her pack it all in and just leave in a huff. “Do you know how to find out if something is important” I was being brave at this point. “NO” was the only response I got and it was loud and clear. Right, I’m an ex Teacher I can remember this issue…

She had this list of things that needed to be done, couldn’t see the forest for the trees and Goldie Locks was NOT going into that forest at all. “You were a teacher right Mum, can’t YOU just help me with it?” She really wanted me to do it for her. Aha! Now I get it. I’m the ex Teacher, she knows it and she wants ME to do the homework for her. I bet even if I wasn’t the ex Teacher she would still want me to do it for her. Goldie locks was in for a tough lesson tonight.

Back to the question “Do you know how to find out if something is important?” Now to ask some more questions even before we even got down to any of the homework. She was rolling her eyes at this point.

Is it important because it is due first?
Is the work time sensitive?Or is it important because there is a lot to do in this project?

So we sorted by due date. Then looked at things that needed to be done at a certain time .One of the projects needed data to be collected every day. And then for some more questions. Oh she was really over this at this point, the eyes were rolling, and the look on her face was priceless!

“What does each assignment ask of you? Are there questions you need to answer? What form does it need to be in?”

I had opened the can of worms now.

“Quality questions create a quality life. Successful people ask better questions, and as a result, they get better answers” Anthony Robbins