homework

[foxyroxy]

I hate to admit that we have a hard time fitting homework and piano practice in. I have a goal to be better. I wanted to get some ideas from all of you on how you monitor and motivate your children to do these things. My children are on so many different levels that it is hard for me to spend the time with each of them. tell me what works in your home!!!

[bookworm]

Oh, I can so relate! My house feels like chaos central after school.

I'm trying the list thing again- the list includes a couple of chores (mainly picking up their own stuff and a small stack of laundry from the day), homework, piano practicing, pets, reading and once a week I'm going to try to include scout stuff, too-- that gets neglected all the time! If the list isn't done the tv doesn't go on, but unfortunately, I have a 9-yo who doesn't much care if the tv doesn't go on- he'll just play with his toys or something.

It seems like you have to find each kid's individual motivation and use that to get them to finish everything.

I'll be interested to see if anyone has any good suggestions here. I try not to be that helicopter parent that reminds them of everything all the time, but with piano practice especially, I'm still paying for it even if they don't do it-- I want to get my money's worth!

I understand about the different levels, too- I can't sit and read with my first grader while my 7th grader needs help with math and my 4th grader needs help doing flashcards and my 8th grader... well... he doesn't require help as much as a full-handed push in the right direction. How do you find time to be everywhere?

One thing that HAS worked for us is this: Our new rule for daily school reading is that at 5:00 everyone stops what they're doing (or comes home from the neighbor's house) and they all sit down and do their reading while I'm cooking dinner. That way, they aren't asking me for help with other homework while I'm trying to cook, and the house is blissfully quiet for a half-hour. The only child who doesn't participate very well is my youngest, but she's getting better.

Just know you're not alone in this struggle, Roxy- I think it's called motherhood...

[5ft Diva]

I try to help my children as much as I can when it comes to after school work, but sometimes I just don't have enough time to spread out among all of my kids. In this case I have found that helping younger children with their reading and homework can be delegated to older children. I have no problem doing this. I'm not abdicating my role as a mother - only delegating a responsibility. My purpose in doing this is to help reinforce in my older child what they have already learned in school and to give them the opportunity to teach. I find that when they have been in the classroom all day they have better teaching tactics than I do.

As far as older children go . . . they are motivated by being able to go play once their stuff is done. I also have adopted an accountability plan that has worked really well for me and my children and has helped us in our communication w/ each other as well. I sit down w/ each of them once a month and go over goals they would like to set for the next month. I use this opportunity to share w/ them the improvements I've seen and what areas I think they might want to work on . We don't talk just about academics. They also set goals for their spirituality and scouting as well. It's been a good experience for me to see how they view themselves and the world as they see it.

As far as playing the piano I can only speak as a former student and teacher. When I was growing up our piano used to be in the family room and then my parents added on to our house and built a study and the piano went into that room. It was kind of a wing off of the house. After the piano got moved to that room I had a hard time motivating myself to play the piano because it was in a part of the house that was away from everybody else. I wanted to be where everyone else was because I didn't want to miss anything or feel left out. (My family would usually watch movies or play games while I practiced the piano.) As a teacher, I have found that the kids who would put effort into practicing were the ones who had one of two things. Either they had a fun song or they had a lot of praise for the milestones they were making from week to week. As a parent I know you play a huge role in the praise part. I'm sure you're already praising them a lot so just keep it up! (I also bribed a lot and that always worked. However - my parents would bribe me and I never took them up on it because the prize was never worth the price I paid.)