My Homeschooled Child Doesn’t Want To Learn!
So your homeschooled child doesn’t want to learn? Firstly, don’t panic!
Not all children are motivated to want to learn. Some can be rebellious while others take a little more encouraging to get up and attend school.
Homeschooling is not an easy feat. It can pose many challenges, especially if you have never had the responsibility to teach a teenager or a child before.
If you face toddler or teenager behavioural problems too, these posts should be of some help:
How to Deal with Difficult Teenagers: 11 Proven Techniques to Handle Difficult Teenage Behavior
12 Ways to Deal with a Toddler Tantrum and How to Avoid Them in the First Place
Although your child might be stubborn, it is possible to increase your child’s willingness to learn, through the use of proper furniture, rewards, schedules and the right motivation.
Encourage them from a young age. It will likely have positive effects on their attitude toward learning in the future.
If you are teaching your child at home, then here are some easy tips for homeschooling to help the process become easier and ensure that your child stays engaged.
The learning of it all…
Physical learning over digital
You will obviously want your child to stay as engaged as possible. Ensuring that you teach them yourself, instead of relying on digital screens will help them stay engaged.
Although screens can be useful, they can also cause distraction. Try to reduce the amount of screen time during homeschooling sessions as possible.
Screen time can act as a reward for being attentive.
Create a schedule that they like
Although you will want to set rules and boundaries, you will also want to satisfy your child’s needs and wants to ensure that they are willing to learn.
Ask them how they would like the day structured so that they have some kind of control over the school day.
You could allow them to choose which order they would like to learn each subject in. This will help you to get to know how they like to learn, which will maximise their focus.
Get outside and explore
In the same way that a school would take a child on a trip, you should do the same.
When I was a homeschooled child after being suspended from school (yep, that happened quite often!), one of the best ways I learned was through experiences.
My mum would take me to see the big ships in the docks…but I would have to pay attention because I would be expected to write a 500-1000 word essay about it when we got home.
Changing up the scenery and getting your child outside for a few hours can make all the difference to their willingness to learn.
Improve their home-classroom setup
Many parents who homeschool their children tend to think that their normal home setup will be ok.
Unfortunately, much of the time, this assumption is incorrect.
The most comfortable school and classroom furniture within a home setting (if you have space!) will likely encourage children to pay attention and stay focused when learning.
It is not a great idea to teach your child from the sofa. A homeschooled child may be at home, but they have to feel as if they are in a school environment.
You should ensure to have a proper and “real-life school” set-up so that your child knows the difference between education and fun.
A chair and a table are enough to ensure that they ‘feel’ like they are at school and pay attention to you.
Here is an idea of what school and classroom furniture is beneficial to learning and can help motivate children to learn within their home space.
If a child becomes uncomfortable, then they will likely easily get distracted and lose concentration. Likewise, if they are too comfortable in their natural home environment, they can become distracted.
They could be in the middle of something important or something that they love to do, but still lose interest due to being uncomfortable (or too comfortable!).
Soft and good-level chairs (not a sofa) and tables (preferably a desk, over a kitchen table) will ensure that your child can maintain comfort and therefore, maintain concentration.
Give them rewards
Offering your homeschooled child a reward for completing exams and being attentive whilst studying at home will encourage them to keep going and achieving good things.
Be careful what you hand out rewards for though!
If you hand rewards out too often, your child will expect them or just lose interest. However, if you set goals for them to hit in order to attain the reward, then they will be eager to get the reward.
You could always discuss the rewards process with your child to get them really thinking: “What do you think is a good reward for finishing all your math work by the end of the lesson?” etc.
Here are 40 fun things you can do with your toddler or young child as a reward!
Image by Chuck Underwood from Pixabay
