There's a classic question that most well-meaning parents routinely ask their kids:

"What did you learn in school today?"

It sounds nutritious doesn't it? Kind of like a breakfast of bacon and eggs used to in the good old days.

The problem is it's not the question you want to ask when you're trying to get your kids to buckle down and do their homework. It's too easy for your kids to shrug and say, "Nothing."

Then, wham!

That door you were trying to open is slammed shut. And where does this leave you? If you're like a lot of parents, it leaves you feeling like you have to nag to get your kids to do their work, while all they want to do is watch TV and send instant messages to their friends.

Nagging probably isn't what you had in mind when you decided to become a parent. But when they come home tired and irritable (pretty much the way you feel yourself after a long day's work), how can you help them study without resorting to nagging and cajoling?

"I can't tell you how many families experience three-hour-long homework fights as a typical daily routine,"says Alicia Freimuth, a counselor at Pinebrook Elementary School in Mocksville, North Carolina.

Thank goodness it doesn't have to be this way.