EFFORT
Being Willing to Work Hard

The FREE MegaSkills activities in this website collection are drawn from hundreds in the book: MegaSkills®: Building Children's Achievement for the Information Age. Two activities are provided for each MegaSkill ... one for younger students (approximate ages 4-6), one for older students (approximate ages 7-9). For many more activities, purchase the MegaSkills book from your local bookstores or from The Home and School Institute. Check the drop down menu above soon for more MegaSkills Activities.

EFFORT
Being Willing to Work Hard

A Study Place - Younger

*Study Skills
*Building Organizational Abilities

All children need their own place at home to do homework. Even with this special place, they might still use the dining room table. But they gain a sense of the importance of homework from having a place of their own. Fancy equipment is not needed. Use old furniture. Cut it down to size as needed. you need a table, a chair, a light.

Walk through your house with your child to find that special study corner. It need not be big, but it needs to be personal. With your child, find the furniture needed; check the attic, ask friends, or visit nearby garage sales.

Paint cardboard boxes or orange crates for bookcases. Latex paint is easy to clean. Encourage your child to decorate the study corner; a plant and a bright desk blotter do wonders. Save children's artwork from school for the extra touch.

A study place can be a desk, or it can be a modest lapboard for a child to use atop a bed. What is basic to both is their message that studying is valued in this house.

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A Study Place - Older

*Study Skills
*Researching and Charting Information

There is a better way than nagging children every day about homework. This activity enables children to keep track - on their own - of what has to be done. You need paper and a marker.

Use a sturdy, large piece of paper to make a homework chart that can be posted on the wall. Here's what one looks like:

Days	English	Math	Social Studies	Science
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday

Each day after school, your child makes checks to represent homework assignments. To show completed homework, the check gets circled. Attach to the chart a marker or pen so that it is always handy.

Talking About Homework
Talk about assignments with your child after they are completed. This is more of a conversation than a checkup. Was the assignment difficult? Easy? Would your child like to know more? consider follow-up trips to a museum or library. Homework can be a starting point for your child's continuing interests - pursued with pleasure and without assignments.