Help Children Focus on Homework

Step One: Get ALL the Info to Organize

   Step one for helping children focus on school related tasks is to start with correct information. It helps to read everything the teacher sends home including textbook instruction, if needed, and the assignment book. Children may insist something absolutely must be done a certain way when it is not true.

Moving the Body and the Brain

  Before doing a task, consider a study by Faber-Taylor.  It shows that playing in a green setting helps children to focus and pay attention. Planning a little time outside in nature before sitting down to do something that requires focus helps concentrating, following directions, and completing tasks. 

  Take a little walk.  Run around the house outside a few times.  Ride a bike for ten minutes. Run, walk or jump around to help get the fidgets out and focus.

Turn off technology

Move & Prepare, No Tech, List To-Do's

   You can turn off all screens and phones and place them by a family charging station. When older children insist they can multitask with music, often the moment you are out of the room they will play a game or talk to friends.

  Before children tackle homework or anything else that takes concentration, turn off the noise of technology, unless technology is part of the the homework. If others are watching a screen or listening to music encourage ear phones or move to a quiet area to be far enough away from distraction.  Studying regularly in the same quiet place next to an adult, with an adult on call, or checking often is a good family habit.

Make a List

  Having homework and chores can overwhelm children. Help them focus on getting things done and done correctly. To avoid a melt-down make a list together and cross of the item when completed. Plan to finish projects days in advange and put that on the calendar.

Have some signals

Signal, Breathers, Habits

Take Breathers

  Homework can be exhausting. After working for 10 minutes or more depending upon the age and skill level stand up and take a drink located close by and then get back to work. Make the relaxing time short.

Develop Habits

  Child psychologists suggest we create magic moments within our family as incentives to finish tasks. Little children like a bath and talking time with a parent. Older children can take a relaxing shower, washing their hair, having a snack, brushing teeth, and reading before lights out. Playing video games, watching videos, or texting friends turns on the brain again and interferes with a great sleep.

For more see grandparentsteachtoo.blogspot.com and wnmufm.org/Learning Through the Seasons.

Drumming Helps Children Learn

 Lub -Dub, Lub -Dub, boom-da-da- boom. Young children are drawn to drumming sounds and love to move with the beats found in every culture. Just observe young children at Pow-wows, band concerts, weddings, and parades. Drums are also a fun learning tool. 

Materials Needed:

Purchased drums, homemade drums, and drumsticks

What To Do:

   To make your own drum sets help children gather cardboard, plastic, wooden, tin containers of different sizes and shapes. Include a discussion that walls and furniture are NOT drums.

   Large boxes are great big bass drums.  They can be held upright or placed flat on the floor for a deep warm sound.  Stay away from high-pitched sounding pots and pans, but include one pizza pan for a realistic cymbal.

   Wooden spoons and chopsticks make excellent drumsticks. Music stores also have inexpensive ones. If desired, muffle sounds by wrapping cloth secured with string around the tips. Children can also just use their hands.

  Use the different sizes, shapes, and materials to explain that large containers make a deep sound and small ones make a higher sound.  Drums, like all other musical instruments, produce sound by vibrating air molecules. These air molecules push together and pull apart until the sound finally reaches the ear. Air molecules have more space and move slower in a large drum chamber. Slower movement creates a deeper sound. Place your children’s hands on a container while you drum.  They can feel the vibration.

  To avoid a crazy riot of banging, drum with your children. Teach them to follow a beat so later they can make their own. Can they imitate different rhythms you make?  Can they beat fast, slowly, loudly and softly?  Can they drum to songs like “Little Drummer Boy” that has a soft steady beat? Familiar songs like “Old MacDonald” and “Itsy Bitsy Spider” have varied rhythms. Create a drumming circle so adults and children can drum together, take turns, and imitate each other.

  “You Tube” is filled with college and high school marching bands, drum circles, and Pow-Wow’s to inspire drumming and dancing.

What Else Can We Do?

  Include drumsticks on your next neighborhood walk and explore the different sounds children can make drumming on trees, pipes, and rocks. Take children to  live performances where they can experience the power of percussion. Liven up a dreary day by marching around your house to the music of a college band playing fight songs.

How Does This Help My Child?

   Drumming, like other kinds of music, helps children focus, relieves stress, elevates moods, improves listening skills, increases coordination, and provides exercise. 

Find Out More

For more ways to encourage music and expend energy on long winter days see the authors’ book “Learning Through the Seasons” at area bookstores and grandparentsteachtoo.org. For more help to prepare young children for success in school see the authors’ web site www.grandparentsteachtoo.org.

Also check our audio Podcasts WNMU Radio 90; Youtube video activities; and join us on Pinterest.

Photos: 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kashmera/3767680884/ DSC_0028

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:US_Navy_050216-N-7923C-211_A_young_Indian_girl,_who_attends_the_Saint_Francis_Xavier_School_for_Children_with_Special_Needs,_plays_a_drum_during_a_concert_held_by_the_U.S._Seventh_Fleet_Band.jpg