Overall Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

“To get ready for any type of apocalypse, plan early, act often – and do whatever you can not to get consumed.”

School was a huge part of my life for all the best and worst reasons! I took pride in my work and always tried my best to do well, but in some subjects, that wasn’t what happened. I excelled in English, but did terribly in Maths. I enjoyed Science, but only just passed when exam time came around. Years later, I became a teaching assistant in a variety of schools, and I LOVED my job. However, one of the main things I noticed while in this job was that children still worry about work and it can be hard to pass exams and do well with so many distractions and expectations. I found this book to be such a lifesaving tool for parents, carers and children alike, and it also includes techniques we can all use in every day life too!

Maybe this sounds familiar? You’re a parent/caregiver of a K-12 child who is having challenges with keeping homework from getting lost, not catching mistakes that are affecting grades, managing classroom projects, studying faster and smarter or knowing how to communicate with difficult personalities. From Homework HELL to Help! by Chris Hare is written for parents/caregivers of children of all inclusive types to quickly hone in on the issues you are dealing with in a friendly, no-nonsense way. As a by-product/added benefit, this is also the quickest ramp-up on the subject on using project management skills in your everyday life.

Introduction.

Project management skills aren’t only incredibly useful to have, but they can be applied to so many scenarios in every day life for both adults and children. The book kicks off by making these skills known and gives a thorough explanation of the six basic constraints. The author uses them and applies these concepts to the life of a student in an educational setting, and gives real life examples of how really getting to grips with these constraints can help both you and your child. Straight away, I loved the amount of detail the author goes in to, but at the same time, I found it really easy to digest. She explains things in simple terms and her solution-orientated descriptions make so much sense. I found this so useful, and it was a great start to the book giving hope to many parents and caregivers.

“A few commandments from project management can easily be applied to make a big difference with projects, or other peer-directed activities.”

Throughout the book, the author gives problems and solutions to a range of scenarios, with detailed step-by-step explanations for how to best approach a subject, idea or a vision. At the start of the book, this covered communication with your child’s teachers, potential child issues, availability of school supplies as well as useful tips and information for a parent to read from a child’s perspective. The book goes into so much detail and covers such a lot in its pages. If I was still in my old job, this would have been so so useful to myself, my team and the students I worked with! I came across so many of the same problems at work, which is why I know this book will help so many.

The middle.

As the problems and solutions continue, I found one particularly important issue which so many children experience – the ability to mix with others in the right way. For example, when a child must complete a group project with other children who they may not know very well, this can cause problems. The book covers the issue of not being able to mesh well with others which can be harmful to them as they grow up, and gives such a detailed, achievable solution. I also found the information about managing tasks particularly useful, not only for children in education, but for my own life too. In fact, many of the tips the author shares can be applied in so many real life situations to help those from all walks of life.

“Similar to project management, your children can take some powerful steps to prepare for planned – and unplanned – events.”

I really appreciated the author covering the topics of time management such as keeping track of assignments, preventing last minute study and knowing how to prioritise work in the correct way. I am usually really bad for this myself as I just want to get everything finished at the same time, no matter how unrealistic it is! Learning skills such as this early on will really set a child up for life. It was also interesting to read all the different ways students can experience stress – it shocked me and opened my eyes to the many different things students have to control to stay afloat in education, including the psychological effects too. The book also covers issues such as budgeting and estimating, studying faster and more efficiently as well as how to use email platforms such as Outlook to their advantage. Again, so much of this can be applied to pretty much anyone, and was so useful for me too!

Conclusion.

The author shares a range of websites and resources you can use every day to manage a range of projects. I checked some of these out such as Remind.com, Wunderlust.com and Khanacademy.com, which help with everything from reminding about homework (used by parents and teachers) to understanding a particular area of work without the need to constantly pester teaching staff! I’d never heard of these resources before and I’m so confident that they’ll be extremely helpful for parents, caregivers and children alike in all areas of improving what you get out of education and how to manage your time and projects properly.

“For a student, risk could apply to anything that she/he must manage or organize.”

This book was an excellent tool for managing time and projects, but focused more on students and the educational side of things. It’s so easy to read and absorb, and provides so many problem-solution based ways to tackle common problems and make the process much easier. The book was very well presented and made it easy for a reader to find exactly what they were looking for. I feel like so many people working in education will find this book particularly helpful, as well as those who need a little more help and encouragement with project and time management. A very useful book for many, and the author sprinkles in a little bit of humour and relatable content to lighten the tone. Would definitely recommend!

A big thank you to the author Chris Hare for my copy of the book! You can purchase your own copy over on Amazon, available on Kindle. Be sure to follow Chris over on Twitter or Instagram to keep up to date!

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