Make Homework Fun at Home
Homework can be challenging when done at home, especially when children refuse to do it because they’re tired and parents feel it’s their duty to “force” children to do it, whether they like it or not. Like anyone else, children don’t like to be forced to do things. It’s better to “win them over” and have them do it because they really want to. One way to achieve this is to make homework fun at home.
Nowadays, children have a hard time keeping up with schoolwork. They live in a competitive and often stressful academic environment that makes them feel emotionally distanced from real learning. One of the main reasons students get tired or bored is that they’re assigned homework without knowing how to seek help.
Parents’ role in their children’s homework
Parents shouldn’t force their children to do anything against their will, not even homework. Nor is it the role of parents to do their children’s homework just because they think it’s too complicated for them or because they’re too tired late in the afternoon after so many after-school activities.
Parents should take responsibility for helping their children with homework. They’re children’s inspirers, but not their private teachers. As adults, they should know more than their children. However, traditional techniques and strategies for providing help with homework don’t work for everyone. Some children get bored quickly and don’t listen.
Others get distracted by things around the house and don’t pay attention to what their parents are saying. Parents who want to help motivate their children to complete their homework should find ways to be more creative. If children realize that this help with homework is different than expected, they’re more than likely to become motivated and feel that it’s really important to do it, without anyone forcing them.
Homework can also be fun at home
At this stage, let’s give you some tips on how to make homework fun at home, so it doesn’t become tedious again for you and your children. You should promote a good relationship towards learning, and feel like it’s a part of life rather than an imposed obligation.
Think differently
If you’re explaining the homework to your child, the best thing you can do is to use different approaches so that your child doesn’t get bored and pays attention to you at all times.
You can talk differently, in a way that your child will enjoy. This means being willing to use non-typical methods to get your child to pay attention to what you’re teaching them.
Make it engaging
Kids love interactive activities. If you’re helping them with homework, you need to make sure that you pay full attention to the subject so that your child does it as well. Don’t pretend to be helping your child if you’re taking care of other matters at the same time.
Remember that if your child sees that you’re not paying attention or that you have your mind elsewhere, they won’t feel the need to pay attention either.
Homework can also be fun at home: give them freedom
Providing more freedom is always a good idea. Children are very sensitive to stress, and they can also have a low frustration tolerance. If the homework session is too strict, they can become emotionally blocked. If this happens, learning will be automatically canceled in their mind.
Instead of paying attention, they’ll be anxious for the session to end. To avoid this scenario, try to provide a place where your children can feel more relaxed. Also, allow for ten-minute breaks for your children to do whatever they want to regain energy before continuing to work.
Learning visually
There are children who are visual learners and need visual props to learn faster. These children are faster at learning to read or memorize pictures or objects. Visual children understand and remember information at a glance.
When having a conversation with your children about a given topic, show them materials that they can relate to the concepts in question. During help with homework, parents can use props such as toys and other materials for each subject in particular.