Fighting your child to do their homework is even more difficult when your child hates a subject. Finding ways to make the subject fun for your child can make homework time easier for both your child and yourself.
There are many reasons why your child finds a subject boring. It may be because they don’t find it interesting or they are facing difficulties with the subject.
If you determined that the subject truly is not interesting to them, there are a few things you can do to help them. Learn 3 key things to help make subjects more interesting.
- Discover the Context
- Make Stories and Mental Pictures
- Use the Knowledge.
Discover the Context: Figuring out why something is useful, relevant or important is the first step to believing it is interesting for a child that is bored. Look for ways that you might use the subject or topic in a real life situation and make a game out of it. Believing something is interesting solves a common problem with students when it comes motivation and memory.
Make Stories and Mental Pictures: If your child is finding a book too boring, try reading a chapter or two out loud to them. Make the story come alive by changing your voice tones and showing excitement in your voice as you read. Sometimes after the chapter is read, your child will continue to read on their own to see what happens next. You can use this technique for other subjects like history, social studies, or science. When you make the story come alive your child will remember the dull facts better.
Use the Knowledge: Sometimes your student is spending too much time studying that they don’t have time to use what they are learning and they don’t see how it applies to real life. For example, if your child is having difficulty in math with fractions, you could have them try making a recipe or pizza in the kitchen. Have them use the fractions that they are learning while cooking. Have them figure out what combos they will need to make the right measurement for the recipe.
If your child is able to read you a simple book, don’t get hung up on the word-by-word pronunciation that leads the story to lose the meaning to your child. Also, try to get them to tell you stories. Try to write them down to help them appreciate the importance of their words. You will also end up with a nice memento of this time in their life – silly ideas and all.
Whatever your child is having difficulty with, it is important to remember to stay positive. Getting anxious or cross will only put them off more. And most important remember to make it fun. If they don’t seem interested in the simple science they are doing, perhaps you could take them out on a clear night to look at the stars. You could also buy a cheap microscope and put an ant underneath it. You will probably learn something cool along the way and it could be a great bonding experience also!
