Tips to Get Your Kids Excited About Homework
Homework. Just uttering the word to your child can start a series of moans and groans. Do you feel like you are at the end of your rope? I know I have. Homework isn’t necessarily every child’s favorite thing to do.
Let’s be honest here. Homework isn’t exactly a party that you can get excited about is it? It CAN be. No seriously it can. You can get your kids excited about Homework, you just need to find out what works for you and your Children, and the homework moans will dissipate.
Tips to get Your Kids Excited About Homework
Stop laughing, I am serious. These few things have helped us in our Homework battles and have actually helped our Children to get excited about Homework. Just try it… when you’re done laughing of course.
Schedule
I have said it before and I will say it again. Scheduling and routine. Set a specific time each night that can be dedicated solely to homework. Children thrive under routines and schedules because they come to know what to expect. Predictability helps the children with their accountability. Once the routine has been in place and established for a while, it will be instinctual for your Children to just start their homework. We like to do homework around 4:30. That gives the kids about an hour after school to relax and settle in, have a snack and hang out. They start homework around the same time I start dinner. This has worked well for us.
Bribery
Just kidding. Sort of. Incentives are a form of bribery to me, and offering incentives to your children is a great way to take the fight out of homework. My son now knows that if he does his homework all week without complaining, we have whatever he wants for dinner on Saturday night. If he argues, he doesn’t get to choose dinner. I have only chosen Saturday dinner once since implementing this structure. He loves to have the freedom to choose what we make for dinner one night a week, so homework gets completed without a fuss.
Have a “Homework” Hub
We have a designated Homework station at our house. Our dining room table serves as the “Homework Hub” at our house. We have a china cabinet with all of their homework supplies, easily accessible to them in the dining room. It’s also important that we turn off all distractions, no TV, no radio, let the children focus on their homework.
Positive Reinforcement
Focus strongly on positively reinforcing your Children for practicing great Homework habits. Our children really do want our approval and the best way to get them excited to do something, is to show them how excited we are that they want to do it. This will make them feel really good about doing homework, instead of feeling pressure.
Do Your Kids get Excited about Homework?