HomeworkCoach policy is that coaching sessions should last a minimum of one hour. This is really our attempt to be fair to our coaches. If you are going to use your gas money and driving time to go to a client’s home, at least you deserve a full hour’s pay.
We’re always happy to explain that to the client, and we find they typically understand. But if the tutor tells us they don’t mind shorter sessions, we accept that, so to some degree this is your call.
We do sometimes have parents or coaches tell us that they can typically get their student organized and caught up with homework well before the 60-minutes is up. So here are some ideas for making use of the extra time once homework is done.
Choose Executive Function Skills To Build On
- Are there any upcoming tests? Let’s start creating a study guide
- Note-taking skills. Find a topic that interests the child, download (or just read) something on that topic from the web, and have the student take notes. Try different note-taking techniques to see what works for them (Cornell style?)
- Time-management games. Ask the student to close their eyes for exactly one-minute (with no external aids, of course) and see whether they have a feel for what a minute is like.
- Working memory games. Present a list of 10 words and give the student one-minute to memorize them, see how many they can remember. You should, of course, discuss strategies. If they can make 5 word pairs, that will make remembering all 10 much easier. Or one sentence connecting all the words… etc.
- Cognitive flexibility. What are 5 ways you could use a pencil, apart from writing. Or 5 reasons why someone may cheat when playing a game at recess (a good way of teaching empathy!)
Or any sort of game that requires stretching the student’s memory, or improves mental math skills. Use games as a reward for keeping the student focused: “If we have time at the end, we will play XXX” Explain to mom that you are not just filling time, you are doing an Executive Function building exercise!
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