How to Get Your Child to Focus – Reader Question
Can you help?! Some questions that are better answered by the collective wisdom of the Creative With Kids community rather than just me. Share what you know in the comments!
Nine Year Old Won’t Stay on Task and Finish School Work
Hi,
I’m wondering if your readers have suggestions for how to get my 9 year old to stay on task. It’s work I know he can do on his own (practicing spelling for instance) but I find I have to sit right there with him or he won’t focus. What are some trick for helping a student stay on task for work you know they’re capable of doing on their own? I hate feeling like I have to nag, nag, nag to get him to work! ~L
Ideas for helping a child focus:
Honestly, I’m having a similar difficulty right now, I do think part of it is this age from what I hear. I do have some ideas that have been helping my own child focus, I’m hoping we get in more ideas from readers though!
- Consistent Time: I’m finding that if I’m pretty consistent with setting aside a work time in the afternoon that is designated to school work every day, my son expects that this is the time he needs to work (not that he loves it, but I get a bit less push back). Also, he is not allowed to do media on the weekends unless all of his homework is finished, so sometimes he has a lot of work on Saturday morning, but he’s pretty motivated to finish it then.
- Sensory Needs: If you suspect that he has a hard time focusing because of a sensory need or being wiggly, or needing to move around, these 5 Sensory Ideas to Help With Focus might help. Doing a little heavy work before sit down work may be in order.
- Kinesthetic Learner: I’ve learned my son is a kinesthetic learner and that a characteristic of this learning style is having a very hard time focusing on work that seems meaningless in the moment (spelling, for instance). I try to remind him of the “big picture” of why he needs to practice boring things like multiplication tables and spelling. I look for times to point out their use in the real world so he begins to understand that the practice has a reason.
- Write Down Expectations: Having a chart for his daily tasks has helped us as well. That way when he wants to go play I can say, ‘Did you finish your chart?’. We use this in the morning for chores and for in the afternoon with work he needs to do each day. The first couple days we started it he hated it, but now he seems to enjoy having the empowerment to check things off and know what is expected of him. I use this free printable daily task chart from Life Your Way.
If you have experience or helpful ideas, please leave your comment for our community!
To submit your own reader question you may email me at: [email protected]
Thanks!
~Alissa
64 Positive Things to Say to Kids
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Limit TV time at home. One trait of successful learners is the ability to tolerate a certain amount of boredom and frustration on the way to achievement–a necessary trait for those who want to excel at a job or career later in life. Research shows that the media, with its emphasis on passive entertainment, has an adverse impact on attention span and creativity. Preschoolers who spent less time with TV or passive video games could concentrate on a toy or activity for much longer periods than those kids who spent time in front of the tube. The latter quickly went from toy to toy. When they were read a story and asked to guess how it ended, the unplugged kids were much more creative in their answers. Some of the TV kids could not even complete this exercise.
I had made a prize for 5 collected golden stars he got,,which converted to Big red Star..he really likes going to malls
I read this post for myself 😉
Wow. I love this idea of a task list. Completing one thing all the way is a challenge at our house–for ALL of us! 🙂 I find myself giving lots of task at one time (especially the ones that weren’t completed the last 5 times I asked).
We use a white board to write down tasks because the marker feels different on the board than a pencil on paper…it’s great for the sensory piece for us and we can all see the list.
Make picture cards for a routine that he can see…. That way he knows what’s coming next. 🙂
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