Homework in Five Minutes
There are many resources, all over the web, for parents and kids to turn to for help on nearly every imaginable topic – and those resources will be collected here in another post, soon – but the greatest homework help, any parent or teacher will know, is a parent themselves.
Teachers universally will tell you: a child whose family provides a support system does much better in school than a child with less.
Support includes: a quiet, well-lighted, cleared-away desk or table upon which to work, with no television or radio to distract them. Healthy snacks for energy are a good idea, since today’s school lunches often come as early as 10:30 a.m., meaning your child hasn’t eaten a thing since then.
Sometimes, depending on your child, it’s a good idea to allow them a few minutes to a half-hour to “decompress” and play, chill out, rack up some scores on the Wii as they transition between school and home. Other kids It’s best to swiftly scoot them into that seat and get the work done and over with.
Either way you choose Routine is key for kids. If kids know homework time is always from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m., free time is from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., and dinner is always at 6 p.m., then not only will they be mentally and emotionally prepared to power down the Wii (keeping a visible clock near the console doesn’t hurt, and neither does a five-minute warning), but they’ll become more efficient at homework – no one wants to lose free time – and they’ll become less resistant to starting it, since it’s “just part of the schedule.”
As kids get older – middle school and high school – they develop a tendency to want to take their homework into their bedroom, amp up the stereo or the TV if they’ve got one, or pop the iPod earbuds in, and sequester themselves in their room. Your call, but this does NOT work for MY teen.
In the past, this has turned into a lot of “I got a good start on it. I’ve only got one page left. Can I come with you to the mall ”
Only to find her at nearly midnight – still with earbuds in – crying over a report that’s 12 pages long still to do.
My younger one, now in seventh grade, has ALWAYS resented the intrusion of homework, feeling like the drills and practice, for instance, of math problems she already understands are a waste of her time.
Nevertheless, we ALL face, in life, chores that feel waste our time, but are necessary to do. So, despite her deep understanding of addition Yep. Still gotta do those twenty problems.
Rather than go at loggerheads with her, I came up with what I call “Homework in Five Minutes.”
She and I made an agreement, since what was happening was this: her reluctance was resulting in her homework taking HOURS, instead of “just getting it done and over with.” (How many times has THIS happened in YOUR house )
We agreed to set a kitchen timer. She would do five solid minutes of homework – full-out, all-energy, do her best homework – and when the bell went off, we’d reset it for another five.
The NEXT five minutes were hers, and hers alone. She could dance, draw, contemplate her navel if she wanted.
NEXT five All homework.
We agreed to try this for twenty minutes. Just twenty, to see if it would work.
I even trusted her to work the timer herself, although I periodically checked, secretly.
Within two days, she came down to my office. “I got so much done in the first five minutes I reset the timer for ten and got done,” she said.
The theory behind this particular system is most kids are used to the quick, grab-your-attention-quickly world of television and other media. It’s difficult for them to concentrate in long spurts in this information age, when everything is coming at you, and you hardly know where to look.
I give them a lot of credit: they have a sort of super-peripheral vision their older counterparts don’t have, because they DO know where to look.
But they ALSO need to develop long-term concentration skills. With the five-minute homework method, it helps them to build it up a bit at a time – and most of all – just like any adult would want – it makes THEM feel in control of their own lives.
While still feeling supported the whole time.
