Practical tips on ‘How to Make Your Child Homework-Independent’?

There’s always an ongoing concern and question in the mind, “How do I make my child homework-independent?”

Your child’s homework often seems to be the heaviest task and responsibility to you as a parent.

Most possibly you can’t find the true answer that can make your child’s mind attracted to homework and transform them from a homework hater to a homework lover.

Therefore, many a times you generally do is end up doing their homework by yourself. Don’t you?

Now, if that’s the case and if you are looking for some simple ways then let me tell you, you’re on the right page.

Here we’ll discuss about the ways that are necessary for a child’s growth and to increase their interest while at the same time, making the learning process easy and interesting.

But first of all, we have to know the important part-

Why Do Students Dislike Homework?

The most basic reason for not doing homework is the lack of interest.

Another basic reason may be the child considering their homework a burden or not having enough time for it. At the same time, their mind is also dominated by distractions like gaming or watching cartoons and playing with friends.

If you ask a student the reasons for why they dislike doing their homework, it is possible they’ll say that they don’t find any value in doing this. They don’t find the enjoyment and satisfaction needed to be attached to something.

It is obvious that lack of interest and enjoyment makes them think of their homework as a boring and burdensome task.

This was from a student’s perspective.

But how big of a part do the caregivers, the teachers and the parents, play in influencing their child for having no zeal to do their homework? Let’s see-

Parents’ & Teachers’ Role in Influencing a Child’s Mind for Liking Homework

Most of the children hate doing homework because of the lack of right guidance, support and resources from both parents & teachers.

There is an old saying : When a flower doesn’t bloom you don’t fix the flower, you fix the environment in which it grows.

The assignments and homework are given to a child to challenge their learning and mind, but what is not built is the basic foundation why homework is important in the first place  and developing basic interest on how to do it. That scarcity of interest and weak foundation often creates a sense of worthlessness in the child’s mind.

On the other hand, the parents, the first teachers of their child, also somewhat lack to closely examine this mindset. They too end up considering homework as a burden and a daily battle for them.

Moreover, instead of understanding the true need, parents try bribing their child, for example, by offering more playtime and screen time in order to make them finish their homework.

But what they don’t realize is that these motivations are short-lived and go away with time.

Will doing this make the child fall in love with their homework? No

Will it help to sharpen their brain? No

Will this revive their interest and energy in completing their homework? Definitely not

So, why are you still doing this? Even if they do complete the homework in greed, what’s the value in it? Tomorrow will be the same again.

Parents and Teachers have to understand that a child’s mind, and the mindset they may have, are majorly influenced by the environment we provide them with.

There’s no doubt that as a toddler they were always eager and curious to know about the things around them. This learning nature is natural in childhood.

But the things that need to be considered is how we can use that nature in the right way and how to give them the right environment so that their mindset towards their homework improves.

How to get the Children to Do Their Homework?

Now comes the real question on how you can make your child to do their homework by themselves?

You may find tons of answers and excellent tips on the internet. we’ve also researched and analysed them thoroughly before writing this blog.

And one thing that we can say is that whatever you do, you need a practical approach. Before your child’s mindset, you must know your own mindset as a parent towards your child’s homework.

To create a genuine interest in the subject it is necessary to give them a sense of value and motivation that stimulates the child’s mind on how to connect the dots.

Let’s take example of Maths Homework

Maths as a subject holds a horrific image in a student’s mind because they are taught in a dull way from the start by both their parents & teachers.

Not just the parents, even unaware teachers simply skip the practical approach in mathematics which is the fundamental building block to recognise numbers, shapes & algorithms.

What they provide is just the theoretical knowledge which is only one aspect. The other important aspect that completes the subject remains missing.

In many developed countries, such as in Singapore, Finland, many successful educational institutes use the C (concrete), R (Representational), A (Abstract) approach in some forms in their classrooms for flexible understanding of numbers and operations.

But the majority of countries and educational bodies aren’t aware of this extremely helpful method that can bring revolutionary changes in the student’s mindset regarding their Interest in the subject.

Unfortunately, we don’t use it here in India and are still stuck with the old traditional way of maths teaching.

As they grow, Mathematics becomes more complex and scarier for them. That’s the reason you would find many students saying “I hate maths” & just not ready to complete their math homework.

The other thing that must be stopped immediately is to bribe them for a temporary motivation. Student struggle to solve a maths problem is of extreme importance and the only way they start thinking and growing.

Who doesn’t like to play? Watching TV? It’s alright if your child does this.

But don’t use this as a tool to motivate them. Doing this can create a wrong mindset among them that will keep them distracted and they’ll soon lose interest in everything else.

But making your child realize his/her responsibility towards completing their homework can go a long way to make them independent.

You can do this by spending some quality time with your child. Motivate them in a right way. Try to understand their needs.

If your child is doing homework on their own, ask them about the concepts and their understanding. And most importantly, praise their work and efforts.

Remain available for their concerns and questions. Your little encouragement helps them to increase their interest and makes the learning process simpler.

So what is true for Mathematics is also true for any other subject you just need to be little aware and alert about creating the right environment making the child realize the benefits of doing the homework independently.

Conclusion

It is a natural concern as a parent to worry about “how to get my children to do homework?” It shows how much you care about them. There is no magic wand or right  wrong strategies but you need to figure what works between you with your child.

Following tips serves as a good advise

• As a Parent how do you look at home work matters.
• Create a genuine interest in the subject as it goes a long way to make the child self-motivated.
• Discuss with your child why homework is important and how it would benefit your child.
• Keep the environment light & motivated, infuse some self-discipline and involve teachers in your strategy to make your child homework independent.
• You should be ready for small reward and praise for a good job done and it need necessarily be a bribe for playing more etc to get the homework done.
• Be there for the child in case he/she faces some challenge on homework front but with a view to only extend some small help or hint but it is the child who is completing the homework.

We at Wisetime Learning offer the right & proven way and have vision to transform the concept of maths education by focusing on the CRA method of learning mathematics, so that the student can gain a sense of enjoyment, empowerment and wisdom.

You can check our other popular articles on the similar topics & reach us if you want to know more about how our solutions can help you.

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• 5 Easy Steps “How to teach maths in an Interesting way”
• How to help your child who is struggling with learning maths

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