Tips for making homework fun and quick?
I have an intelligent kid that doesn’t like homework. It takes so long to do a simple page, because he moans and groans through the entire process. I won’t get into all of it, but I’d love suggestions on simple ways to make it fun during the process. We have fun stuff to do afterward, but that doesn’t motivate him to actually do it and when he does do it he’s a grump. I’d like the actual process of doing the homework to just be fun and move quickly.
I’m a big proponent for the less homework the better, so it’s not a ton. These are basic fundamentals that I think are good for him and his level, not time waster activities.
4 answers
rachel8302
One thing that has helped us, and all three of ours are an elementary school so this may not work for older kids, is a sticker chart with periodic prizes.
The sticker chart is up and available for everyone to see. If you do your homework, then you get to put a sticker up. We have individual rewards and group rewards. Both occur at factors of 10.
At every 10 stickers some of the individual prizes are you get to pick a half hour show to watch (the power of being able to choose without negotiating with your siblings is amazing), you can go to the dollar store and pick out one box of candy of any flavor, you get to draw a picture on daddy‘s arm, you get 15 minutes of attention from mom that nobody can interrupt, etc. We tried to keep them fairly simple and mostly not costing money.
We also set group rewards. They are set at factors of 10. For example, once everyone got to 20 stickers, we went to see a movie in the theaters as a family. When everyone got to 30 stickers, we did a s’mores night with friends. They picked the prizes as a group. Other prizes are going as a family to play mini golf, an outdoor family movie night, sundaes on Sunday. Stickers are reset at the beginning of every year, so we have higher and higher prizes they’re aiming at for the end of the school year. For example, if they can all hit 150 stickers, then we will all go to great Wolf Lodge for a day as a family. The group prizes are nice because they encourage each other to do their homework, and my older kids are more likely to help my younger kid with homework.
- Emalemaline—Thank you for your answer. I might need to try this.
- courtcarp310
My kids have a hard time with piano practice and their piano teacher suggested I only count “positive practices” on their practice chart. After like…10 positive practices (so like…2 weeks) she lets them choose an index card that my kids and I put together at the start of the school year. These have activities that are reasonable for me (based on time and money limits), but they have chosen. Examples of some: Bubble bath with ice cream, new nail polish, item from dollar store, special date with mom or dad, a chore free day, pack of gum…just to name a few.
Seriously a game changer. My girls used to scream and curl up in an unresponsive ball on the piano bench EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.
This year has been almost magical. I’m actually having fun with them when I help them with practicing and they will often practice randomly without me asking them to. Instead of tally marks on their practice books, I mark the practice with a smiley face.
Perhaps there is a way that something like this could be beneficial helping with homework time as well. ❤️ jon190
this is a tough one. i’m definitely not an expert: our first-grade daughter seems to (sorta?) like doing her homework, and our pre-K son isn’t old enough yet for homework. so my answer should be taken with a big grain of salt.
but both of them hate doing anything routine (aka “boooring”). based on my own experience of hating homework as a kid, i hear that as code for “i don’t see what i get out of this”. what has worked for us is to connect the boring activity to a reward that they actually care about.
for example, our daughter really values 1:1 connection and quality time. she loves being able to show us her homework when it’s done, and she knows she can get that time since it’s a shared goal. every once in a while i get to sit down next to her and talk about it while she’s doing it, and those are *magic* moments for her that help make homework feel positive.
like i say, our son doesn’t have homework yet, but he has to do lots of other “boring” things (or so he emphatically tells me 🫠). what really gets him excited is prizes and recognition. he will do practically anything if he’s working towards a big prize at the end of the week — like, say, an ice cream outing. and most days, he’ll happily switch from “complain mode” to “zoom through chores” if he can pick a sticker at the end and put it on the (visible for all to see!) family sticker poster. it probably helps that it’s fair game for him to put his sticker over one of his sister’s stickers, which he loves doing haha.
I don’t have the answer. I am just grateful to you for asking. I knew I needed to check out the responses when I read your question.
- CharleeTSmith—It’s still a work in progress for us. I tried playing a 2 player game just me and him the past couple of times before we even started homework and I think that’s helping. Still more for us to work on though.