Motivating a teen to do homework

Spendless

bylromarha wrote: »

We don't allow weekend homework as we're under the opinion that 20 hours to complete it during the week is more than adequate. If he chooses to not use that time for his homework, then it's his own fault.

20 hours a week would be adequate for homework if he was doing it, but he's not.

That fetches us back to the poster who said 'why are rewarding him with 2 days without schoolwork, when he hasn't put the hours in mid-week'

You've admitted nothing else works, detentions aren't doing it. I understand that. They didn't work for my son either. At the moment you do have something you can take away from him, his Saturday and Sunday off. Take them away, if he doesn't do the work Mon-Fri he does it Sat and Sunday instead.

It has to be at least worth a try?

tyllwyd

Perhaps the problem isn't just that he cant be bothered to focus, maybe he genuinely struggles to focus and he needs help to learn how to do it. Have you ever heard of the Pomodoro system? The idea is that you have a ticking timer that is set for 25 minutes, which is one unit of work, then you take a break. So you train yourself to concentrate for a period of time.


You would have to adapt it to suit him, of course, but maybe rather than saying you have to work and you can't go on the internet until you are finished, you would be asking him to work in a concentrated way for a limited period of time, then he can relax, before starting work again.

Marvel1

When I was at college and uni, assignment given, deadline 3 weeks time.

Problem: No motivation to start. only time I was motivated was in the last week and especially one day before.

Results were tidy enough.

Not very helpful, I find it hard to motivate myself early on, until last minute.

Loz01

bylromarha wrote: »

We don't allow weekend homework as we're under the opinion that 20 hours to complete it during the week is more than adequate. If he chooses to not use that time for his homework, then it's his own fault.

But all you're doing is increasing the pressure on the hours after school?

By saying right you have 20 hours homework to do in 5 days, 4 hours a day. If on the first day he hasn't done it thats just added 4 hours to the next day which is 8 hour after school, which is not do-able?

I find this odd, I ALWAYS used to do my homework, A Level work AND uni work on the weekends, particularly THIS time of the day, 4pm on a Sunday where there's jack all to do, nothing on TV and you can put music on and get a bit done.

Simple_Soul

bylromarha wrote: »

We don't allow weekend homework as we're under the opinion that 20 hours to complete it during the week is more than adequate. If he chooses to not use that time for his homework, then it's his own fault.

Don't you mean 10 hours (2 hours a day x 5 days a week)?

At the risk of making you even more defensive, I am beginning to feel sorry for your son.

2 hours is too long after a full school day. He should not be doing 2 hours until Year 12 (according to the ten minutes per School Year guideline).

He is probably struggling to concentrate for that long, and is giving himself some light relief by switching over to gaming sites.

Limit his homework time to 1.5 hours a day, and then let him play as many games as he wants.

If a child of mine wanted to do homework at the weekend I would be pleased. I certainly wouldn't put obstacles in his way.

Tabbytabitha

Simple_Soul wrote: »

Don't you mean 10 hours (2 hours a day x 5 days a week)?

At the risk of making you even more defensive, I am beginning to feel sorry for your son.

2 hours is too long after already spending 8 hours in school. He is probably struggling to concentrate for that long, and is giving himself some light relief by switching over to gaming sites.

Limit his homework time to 1.5 hours a day, and then let him play as many games as he wants.

If a child of mine wanted to do homework at the weekend I would be pleased.

"8 hours in school" - since when?

Simple_Soul

bylromarha wrote: »

If we took his laptop away, he would fill his time with reading. Anything, everything, the toilet cleaner label would be on his list if you took every book out of our house. He does not do much else.

Pocket money is non existant for him, he forgets to claim it.

I would be pleased if my child liked to read. In fact I think I would be tempted to allow him 1.5 hours a day for homework, maybe another hour for computer games , and then take his laptop away, just to encourage the reading.

Why does he have to "claim" his pocket money? Aren't kids normally just given it?
What if you opened an instant access savings account for him, in his own name, and set up a monthly standing order for £10 or whatever the going rate is?
Then you can increase / decrease the rate depending on his annual school results.

ska_lover

Are schools really eight hours a day in some parts of the UK?

Where I live (midlands), school starts at 8.50 and finishes at 3.15 - so they are on site for 6 hours 25 min. Take away the hour lunch and the 20 min mid morning break - learning time is 5 hours 5 mins, that includes the shuffling around in between lessons and 2 x registrations each day. (Bearing in mind in the world of employment, a five hour shift would not constitute a break of any kind) Add on the two hours homework, that is seven hours learning per day. Then their time is their own unless their are chores

Obviously that is just based on my area, if some schools are doing eight hours I am surprised to hear that

ska_lover

Simple_Soul wrote: »

I would be pleased if my child read a lot. .

I agree, my daughter always loved reading. Anything she could get her hands on. She still loves a rifle in a charity shop for a reading bargain now shes in her mid 20s - I think a love of reading is something you keep all your life.

silverwhistle

ska_lover wrote: »

I think a love of reading is something you keep all your life.

The kids today don't know how lucky they are: all those cheap LED headlamps now available for reading under the bedclothes!


I think the OP is right about using time slots and then pulling the plug if they are not used.



A friend of mine lodges in a house where the parent has no concern or discipline at all with their child. "Cough, cough, I'd better not go to school" and the parent rolls over. My friend programmed the router access for the kid's computer so that it couldn't use the internet during regular school hours, so no staying at home and gaming...