Helping your kids with their homework can often be a daunting task.  Not only have you not practiced what they are learning in years, many parents are unsure of what study strategies will best help their student’s learn.

While each student, and subject, is different and may require different methods for studying and learning, we have included some great ways to help you help your student learn vocabulary.

Vocabulary Study Strategy

  1. Choose a vocabulary word
  2. Print it on one side of a “flash” card (use index cards, heavy paper cut into strips, etc.)
  3. Put a border around it.
  4. Ask your child to tell you what he or she thinks it means, so that it draws from things your child already knows
  5. Reinforce the correct definition
  6. Print the definition on the other side of the “flash” card
  7. Stand and act out a movement for the word while spelling it aloud three times!
  8. Repeat the process with the next word on the spelling or vocabulary list.

If your child’s teacher requires that he or she write the words three times each in cursive, ask the teacher if your child can write the word two times in cursive and one time printed on a flash card.

Explain that you are better able to help your child using flash cards. Some children will not mind writing the words four times each. My children, however, objected to the extra work and even insisted, “But the teacher says I have to do it THIS way!” So, I made a deal with the teacher to have one set of words on flash cards and the teacher then told my child that it was okay.

Excerpted from Please Help Me With My Homework by Susan Gingras Fitzell.