How to encourage a child to do more homework

[sweetpeas]

Hi,
Can anyone, please, give me advice on how to make my daughter do more studies at home. She is a bright child achieving excellent results at school but is very reluctant to study at home. I have tonnes of interesting educational materials and encourage her to do learning tasks at home every day. She can read and draw for hours, but would just freeze with given maths or writing tasks. I have tried giving her short tasks eg. only 2 pages of maths excercises and asking her to complete them. Most of the time my daughter would start working on given tasks, and then start scribbling something on paper or getting into other activities. I also tried sitting with her and supervising her work but soon after the start she would say that she is tired or hungry or something else. I always choose appropriate time to make sure she is not tired or hungry. So, what could be the problem? I am getting frustrated having tried everything. Please, help.

[mum3]

Why do you want her to do extra work at home??

[capers123]

She is a bright child achieving excellent results at school but is very reluctant to study at home. I have tonnes of interesting educational materials and encourage her to do learning tasks at home every day. She can read and draw for hours, but would just freeze with given maths or writing tasks. I have tried giving her short tasks eg. only 2 pages of maths excercises and asking her to complete them.

Is she doing all her school homework? Does she do lots of after-school clubs? How old is she?

I know my two children have loads of homework from school, especially the Y5. They also need down time to be children, play, have unstructured fun - they spend a hard days work at school! We encourage them to look into interesting things, take up fascinating hobbies, take them on days out that are educational without them knowing it. And let them relax with books (that they choose rather than us choosing for them).

[Guest1965]

Sweetpeas. Join the club!!!!!!!
My son is the same. Loves his new independent school,but turns into a 'stroppy' pre teen when homework is mentioned. I think we forget that our children are that, 'children'. We very much want them to achieve and we expect them to think as we do. I think most children find writing 'hard',they have to learn to write,and that takes time. This last 4 months,since he started 'big' school has been a learning curve,not just for my son,but for me aswell! All those extra subjects!!! Our children deserve medals for heavens sake. Your child will be fine. Ease back a little,and let her go at her own pace. Then ease in when needed. Goodluck.

[sweetpeas]

My daughter is in Y6. She doesn't have much homework from school and doesn't go to after-school clubs as she says she wants to rest at home and spend time with her siblings after school. She has lots of hobbies including drawing, horse riding, etc. She sat her 11+ recently, and we will know the results only in March. I want her to do extra work at home because I feel that school homework is not enough (once a week or in 2 weeks) and I identified some gaps in her knowledge (maths) during the preparation for 11+ with me. We worked on them and my daughter was fine. Her handwriting is beautiful, her English is good. So I just wanted her to do extra work on Maths and creative writing at home to keep her being organised and continue developing further. We made this decision together earlier. I am not pushing my daughter, I am also thinking about the benefits of homework. I can offer so much to her - different educational materials and my support at any level. I wanted to make our studies a routine creating a nice and positive learning environment leading to continuous success. I am also wondering how much homework (school or home initiated) other children of similar age do in a week?

[Guest]

How can you say you're not pushing your daughter when you say she's reluctant to do work at home?! Why should a child who works at school all day come home and have to do more of the same?!

[Bewildered]

Sweatpeas,

If you feel she needs extra work in these areas, perhaps you can say it is work towards the KS2 SAT's. It may be more of a motivation if your DD has a definite goal to aim towards, and have a time frame to achieve it in.
My son's school give two piece's of h/w a week, and I'm expecting alot more in the new year from what I've heard of the yr 6 workload as the SAT's approach. I also DIYed for the 11+, and apart from some work on Science nearer to the exams, feel confident that the work we covered for the 11+ will be more than enough.
Good Luck

BW

[NotionPotion]

Re-pushing children. See recent thread in "Everything else" -There lies a circular debate!

[sweetpeas]

SAT'S KS2! My DD finds the preparation fun as she likes practice papers. I will suggest this as aim for now. And we can cover three subjects at the same time! I think 1 page of each a day in 30 minutes will make all the difference to her homework.

[katel]

I'm sitting on my hands to stop myself responding to this thread - but I can't help myself. Please don't make her do extra work - she's achieving excellently already. Don't make her resent schoolwork - there'll be plenty of homework in Secondary school - let her play while she can!