Tips to Take the Stress Out of Homework Time

Tips to Take the Stress Out of Homework Time Some parents find homework time to be the most stressful part of the day, but it doesnt have to be that way. If youve heard from any parents that homework is causing a lot of anxiety and arguments, its time to do something about it. Here are a few tips to share with your students parents to make things easier on the whole family: Time your children. Its a big red flag when your students take a long time on homework and dont have the grades to show for that effort. Give parents an idea of whats a reasonable amount of time to spend on homework and encourage them to keep an eye on how long their children are working. Teach prioritization. Students who struggle to rank their homework in order from most important/due soonest to least important/due later will find themselves taking far longer than needed to do homework. A simple handout explaining how parents can work with their children to review and rank tasks at the start of every homework session will help. Encourage a routine. Children today lead busy lives, but the more parents can guide their children toward a consistent daily routine, the better. Maybe that means homework happens after school or before soccer, but the key is to establish and stick to a schedule. This promotes good time management skills and gives children greater control over their days. Develop an organizational system. Staying organized is essential to de-stress homework time, and involves several components: using a planner (or planner app), keeping to a schedule, and keeping track of all important papers and materials required for homework. Again, a handout for parents could be useful as they try to keep their children on track at home. With a few adjustments, parents can transform homework time from an angst-inducing battle into just another part of the nightly routine. Pass along your best tips for making homework time run more smoothly at home, and youll most likely notice a positive difference.

English Word Order with Adverbs (Video+Exercise)

English Word Order with Adverbs (Video+Exercise) Do you have difficulty with word order in English? Here is our second video and exercise to help with this. This time we will practice word order with adverbs, with the general rules and the exceptions.Heres an example of two sentences with adverbs. One of them is incorrect. Watch the video to see which is correct, and more importantly, to learn why.Always I go to the gym.I always go to the gym.   Place the adverbs in the correct part of the sentence. Write your answers in comments and we will correct them.  We were in New York. (last week)She waited. (patiently)My brother goes skiing. (always)Your bathroom is. (upstairs)We dont go swimming. (in winter)Dogs can hear. (well)I saw her. (there)My friend speaks Mandarin. (fluently)I have heard that song. (never) / (before)Ok, thats it! We hope you enjoyed this exercise. Contact us if you would like to try an English class via Skype. Fabrizzio Scavone We were in New York last week She patiently waited My brother always goes skiing Your b athroom is upstairs We dont go swimming in winter Dogs can hear well I saw her there My friend speaks mandarin fluently I have never heard tan song before LOIEnglish Fabrizzio,The second sentence: She patiently waited or She waited patiently is a bit difficult. There isnt a strong rule about the placement of a modifying adverb. An adverb that answers the question how. Patiently is a modifying adverb. It tells us how she waited. Normally in this sentence we would use the second option, She waited patiently. When the sentence is short, only has one idea, and isnt a compound sentence we put the adverb after the verb. She waited patiently. If the sentence was longer and conveyed more information: She patiently waited at the train station for her brother to arrive in this case both forms are correct.Lets look at another example: He quietly read. =This sounds a bit strange. It isnt necessarily incorrect but a bit awkward. He read quietly. =This sounds better. He quietly read by the fire with a warm cup of coffee in his hand. =This sounds fine because the sentence conveys a lot of information. He read quietly by the fire with a small cat curled on his lap. =This also sounds fine.Also I think you had a typo in the last sentence. I have never heard THAT song before.Thanks for answering. Leopoldo Cerqueira we were in new york in last week she waited patiently My brother always goes skiing Your bathroom is upstairs Dogs can hear well I saw her here My friend speaks Mandarin fluently I have never heard that song before. LOIEnglish Leopoldo, Very good! You made one small mistake. In sentence number one: We were in New York last week. You included an extra preposition in. We usually dont use a preposition when we use the adverbial expression last for time. For example: I got married last month. Last year was 2011.Notice that both the above examples we dont use a preposition before last. Also you may notice that we dont use an article either.Another small problem with yo ur answers is your punctuation. Be sure when writing in English that you are punctuating correctly.Hope this helps! Sergio Lacerda 1. We were in New York last week. 2. She waited patiently. 3. My brother always goes skiing. 4. Your bathroom is upstairs. 5. We dont go swimming in winter. 6. Dogs can hear well. 7. I saw her there. 8. My friend speaks mandarin fluently. 9. I never have heard that song before.