Time It! Motivate Your Child

Finding ways to motivate children to get their schoolwork finished in a timely manner is sometimes challenging. Try these activities with a simple timer and get those lessons done.

Sometimes a child can get stuck on one page or problem in a lesson and waste precious time getting nothing done. Before trying these time-it activities, be sure the child understands the lesson. One reason for not doing the work maybe that she doesn't know how to do it.

When using time-it activities, be sure your child does not give up quality for quantity. Make sure she does a good job. If it's not her best work, it's not acceptable and the timer keeps going. You know what your child can do and what her best work is because you've seen it before.

Beat Your own Time Time your child to see how long it takes to complete the lesson. Write it down and post it somewhere where it can be seen easily. Each time you do another lesson in that same subject, write it below the last time. Encourage your child to beat her own time.

Five Minute Page Turn This activity has given some humorous results. It works well on a lesson that has multiple workbook pages.

First, think back to a good day when the child completed this type of lesson in fairly good time. How long did it take to complete? This is how long you will set the timer. Look over each page and determine if it will need more or less time. A more difficult page will need more time. Explain to the child how much time he will have complete each page and be sure he understands all the instructions on each page. Determine a prize or reward to give if he beats the timer.

Now set the timer for the first page. When the timer goes off you turn the page. If he did not complete the page, he turns it anyway. The time for that page is over, and the timer is set for the next page with no break. When the timer rings again, you move on to the next page. If the child finishes a page before the timer goes off he can turn back to a page that he did not complete and work on it until time is up. When the timer goes off for the final page, the lesson is over.

Time One Problem This activity works well when a child is just plain bored with a page of the same thing like addition problems. Time how long it takes the child to solve one problem. Write down the time. Time the next problem and write down the time. Encourage the child to do each problem faster than the one before

Time's Up This activity will help the child increase her attention span. Set the amount of time for the lesson. Start with a small amount of time, 5 or 10 minutes. Explain to the child that you will study this lesson for the set time and when the time's up she can do an activity of her choice. Be sure to set the time to go back to the rest of her lessons.

Set your timer and begin the lesson. No matter how much or how little you feel she has accomplished, when time's up the lesson is over. After the first week or two, you will notice that she can stay focused for a longer amount of time.