No matter if a child should do homework or practice an instrument at home, this is many times and in many cases a problem.
Discipline is synonymous for boring.
And children don’t like to do boring stuff.
(I can understand that, I don’t like doing boring stuff either. Do you???)
So clearly I can relate to that and know from personal, first-hand experience that homework and having to do something consistently and consequently at home sucks.
Wasting time, hanging out, fooling around and dreaming is much more fun.
No matter what age I am in ;o)
With that said, what can we do to motivate our students or children to do some work at home (homework and practicing)?
We have to know three things:
1.) The more attention and appreciation a child gets for doing something, the more often they will do it.
This means, tell the child to do their work and when they did it, give praise and make a big thing out of it.
2.) The child should do the work they have to do in public, in the living room – at an important, central place for the family. Not in their room.
A child’s room is full of distractions. Help the child to stay focused on their work by being observed by everybody.
3.) As an adult, help to form a ritual.
For instance, after the dishes are done after dinner, it’s always music time. Every day. No exception.
At first, it can be difficult to establish a habit like this, but once this ritual is formed, getting the work done is going to be easy and normal for the child.
So to sum this up here is what you can do, to assist your child to do boring stuff:
– Show the child that music (or the homework) is important. Give praise when it’s done.
– Invite it to do what it has to do in public.
– Establish a ritual. Same time, same station, same procedure.
At least this helps ME keep going ;o)
So obviously this is helpful for adults as well…
Of course I know that there is more to this subject.
I just wanted to put something practical and useful out.
Much love,
Anselma
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