June 6, 2010
Assisting Your Children With Academic Assignments.
Although sometimes you can get busy with your everyday life such as making dinner and getting ready for work, it can be completely enjoyable to spend an evening helping your children with their schoolwork. It can be a great way to relive those carefree moments of your youth and enjoy theirs as well as they tell you about things that happened in their day at school.
One thing I have to be incredibly proud of is that my children tend to get their homework assignments done on time and usually put quite a bit of effort into them. I think their good grades reflect how hard they work all year long. I would like to think they take after me.
I know that the class that I found most enjoyable had to have been art class. Inspiration could be everywhere and anywhere, a leaf on the ground in the park, a gum wrapper on the side of the road, an ad on television, or simply from your imagination or the imagination of others. It was always incredible to see what everyone came up with for the same assignment.
I began reminiscing after my daughter brought home a sheet of paper with half of a magazine ad where a beautiful teenager was displaying a crystal necklace glued to it. The assignment was to draw the other half of the image as best as you could.
My son had to make a collage from magazine advertisements. I helped him select a few pages out of the magazine to choose from to put into his collage. A toothbrush, a pair of princess cut engagement rings, a damask sofa, and a charming bedding collection. It was certainly fun to remember the times when I had to do these in class.
My daughter seemed to be having quite a bit of trouble, so I offered a few suggestions. She liked the one that had her try something she thought was easier first. She thought about it for a minute and agreed to try it. We went through the magazine for my son and she chose a set of hobo handbags. We cut it in half and glued it to a piece of paper.
After she was done, she smiled at me and told me that it is much easier to draw purses instead of people. I had to agree with her, but I think it helped her. She tackled her assignment then and ended up with fairly high marks on it. I was certainly very proud of the job she did on it.
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January 29, 2010
Tips To Help Motivate A Young Child
I have two children and even though I love them to bits, I have to say that at times they need motivating to do their homework or to help out around the house, for example. This article describes how I go about this child motivation. The methods have helped my own children no end and I am sure they could help other parents in a similar situation.
Now I do not work with children and therefore would certainly not class myself as any sort of expert. I am sell cheap holidays by day; I also work on various other projects including with fostering services UK and also within the external doors sector.
I remember when I met my step-daughter, she was five years of age and quite a character. I felt a bit sorry for her however as she spent a lot of time at a childminders. The childminder would take her and pick her up from school. On some days her mother would not be able to collect her until around 8pm.
After a few months of dating her mother, I offered to help out by stating that I could take her to school and pick her up. My step-daughter said that she wanted me to do this and it was all agreed.
Up to this point she had never really been made to do her homework, either by her mother who was very busy and often tired or by the childminder.
After we arrived back at the house; I asked her whether she had been given any homework to complete. She passed me her reading folder. In the folder was a book which she was supposed to read. OK; we can read the book together; I suggested. I don’t do homework, she replied. This was rather a shock to me as was the attitude with which she had said it. Well things are going to change then because in the future, and starting now, you will be doing your homework.
My step-daughter had a bit of strop and started to cry. Your not my dad, you can not make me do it, she continued. I basically had to be very strong and made her read the book. There happened to be around fifteen words that she could not pronounce and I proceeded to write them all down in the form of a list. We then spent around ten minutes where I attempted to teach her the words. She found all of this very boring.
I then told her that we would now play a game, which is called the mouthing game. She would pick a word from the list and just mouth the word without making a sound. If I could guess what she had mouthed, she would get a point and then it would be my turn.
She really enjoyed this game and on the way home from school on the next day, she asked if we could play the game again. Of course we can but we need to read the book first, I said. She replied that this was fine. The above is an example of one of many games that we as parents play to help to motivate our children; especially when the task at hand is seen as boring or mundane. It may seem a little crazy or even bizarre but it works for us.
I also compliment both children and tell them how much I love and am proud of them at regular intervals. I give them rewards when they have a good school report and encourage them to always give things ago even if they believe that they might fail in the specific task. In my opinion there is no such thing as failure if you have tried your best.
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Filed under Garden News and Tips by flowertips