Let your player take responsibility and carry the ball. Be available for support, but let your child complete the task at hand from start to finish. Yes, homework is sometimes dull, or too easy, or too difficult. That doesn't mean that it shouldn't be taken seriously. Remind your child how many boring hours athletes spend pumping iron or doing sit-ups, and how tedious practicing chords can be for a guitarist.
Homework often means drill and reinforcement, which is often time-consuming.
One formula for determining how much time a child should spend on homework mutliplies the child's grade level by 10. Thus, your fifth grader might expect around 50 minutes of preparation per night. More important than length, however, is the quality of time and attention homework gets. Fifty minutes flopped on the bed with the stereo blasting doesn't count. Avoiding pitfalls Parents can be invaluable as cheerleaders and resources.