I used to be a hands-off homework parent, unless asked for help. And although this 
approach is being championed in the media lately, in my instance, it was born less of philosophy, and more of happenstance. My kids are blessed with high intelligence, and are without major learning impediments. The grade school years have been a blissful, battle-free zone, as far as homework goes. We’ve all enjoyed coasting.
As my older boys have risen through the secondary grades, this lofty ground has become quite a bit rockier. My high school freshman and I frequently battle over homework, and I was a bit worried about expanding the war to a new front when we were offered the chance for him to use TestRocker, an online study aid for college entrance exams.
So it’s a considerable endorsement of the program to say that he has progressed over a month into the study plan without me nagging, threatening, or having to utter dire predictions for his future. It doesn’t hurt that I have subcontracted him for this series of reports, and there’s a paycheck dangling ahead, but nobody’s paying him not to complain when I remind him to put the time in.
