I need all your tips, tricks and ideas - both to help my kid get started on and finish her work, and to help me get through it. Because currently it’s painful for both of us. I feel like I want to crawl out of my skin, sitting with her and trying to make myself stay focused so I can help her stay on task.
What does your evening look like? How often do you take breaks and what do you do during the break? Do you have any fidgets, wiggle chairs, etc., that you keep in the “homework area” for them to use while they’re doing their homework? Anything you’ve learned almost always derails things?
What we’ve tried so far (she’s in 4th grade):
- Do one entire item (ex: worksheet, reading passage, spelling list) then take a break and do something fun - this works for some things but others we’re sitting there for 20-30 minutes struggling to finish it
- Set a timer and do as much as she can in 10-15 minutes then take a break - this works well at the start each evening but each time it’s more of a struggle for both of us to come back and do more homework. I feel like it may be too many transitions for our tired, end-of-day executive functioning abilities (or lack thereof).
- Earn a small piece of candy for each question answered, math problem solved, etc. - This works well for math, but I don’t like to use it before we eat dinner, and usually we do at least some homework before dinner.
I just want to help her find some skills she can use to tackle “have to do” things - because as we all know it’ll be a daily struggle even as adults (at least during the work week).
When i have a “have to do” thing I’m struggling to start and I’ve already done just about everything else avoiding it, I “put my ears on”. That is, I get my noise canceling headphones and play something like the lofi study girl on YouTube. I actually prefer something more up tempo, so experiment around with the different suggested videos, but that classic is a good starting place.
I wish I’d had this in my toolbox when i was in school but I didn’t figure it out until my late 30s. When i put the over the ear set on, it’s like it signals to my brain that it’s buckle down and do the necessary thing time. I do still have to take some breaks, and I’m afraid to overuse this since it does work well for me. I don’t want to wear out its effectiveness! 😅
I think the underlying mechanics is the instrumental music keeps a portion of my brain occupied/ interested in the same way that fidget toys are supposed to while simultaneously blocking environmental distractions.
That has made me remember another trick…I have “wiggle pedals” for my feet. They are similar to an under desk bike pedal device but allow for multidirectional movement. Found them, they’re called Hovr. A really good substitute would be those elastic exercise bands stretched over the legs of the chair. Like these…
I have on occasion used the headphones and the Hovr pedals at the same time, and I experienced what can only be described as the Vince McMahon reaction meme (the glowing eyes one). Shame I used that power on drafting board financial reports and not solving global warming, but I didn’t have that on my to do list.
Thanks! We’ll try some lofi tracks. I always forget they’re a thing, so I should probably look some up now.
That Hovr thing looks awesome!