How can I help my son realize that his homework is important?
My son is in the 6th grade this year and we are only in the 6th/7th week of school and my son is failing two subjects because he does not want to do his homework. I have been having his teacher email what has to be done everynight and when I ask him about those, he says that he left them at school or that he doesn’t understand them. Itry my best to help when he has a problem, but it has been a long time and I don’t remember everything. I s there anything that you could suggest that would help make my son do or like to do his homework and bring up his grades. Thanks so much.
Bring him to fast-food places or other undesirable places of work and tell him that he’ll end up having to work there if he doesn’t bring up his grades.
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Rewards…and punishments when he “forgets” to bring it home….he thinks he can get away with it or he would not keep doing it….if you struggle to help him then maybe he’ll need to be tutored.
maybe tell him he gets a treat if he does his homework? or some kind of big reward at the end of the month?
Take things away (like television, video games, and other distractions) if he doesn’t get his homework done. Reward him if he does. Trust me that memory will improve with such reinforcement. -yk
take away every thing that he likes, ex. video games, tv…until those grades go up and he starts doing that homework everynight. sometimes just “telling” them to do something dont work, you have to take action
is there anything particular he likes doing?? like art or something? well if he wants to grow up to do what he wants to nd not have a dead end job, then he’ll do his homework…just ask him if he wants to work at arby’s until hes 80…if he doesnt then tell him he will unless he does his homework, you could also ask the teachers for copies of the worksheets or w/e that he has everynight, that way if he says he forgot it, you’ll have an extra copy. you could also take privilages away, like not being allowed to whatch tv unless ALL of his homework is done, or that he cant go on the computer until he raises his grade. hope this helps!
Please trust this answer;
The best thing you can do for him at this point is to sit down with him FROM BEGINNING TO END. Even if you don’t understand it, by you being there with him, it will make a HUGE difference. You could even ask him to TEACH YOU how to do it. Not only will that cause him to think about it more, but it will increase his self confidence and make him feel smart!
Kids at that age don’t understand why they wouldn’t want to work at a fast food place- to them it’s just a job like any other.
If he associates doing homework with bad feelings (being sent away from everything good) then he will continue to hate it.
If you tell him that it’s just something that has to get done- just a part of life we all have to go through- and he knows you’ll be his side, he’ll learn how to get it out of the way fast so he can go have fun.
Best wishes!!!
Well – lol – dealing with kids on almost any subject is hard enough … getting them to DO something ..
Anyways – If you can get him to understand that once you learn a habit .. it says with you forever. Don’t do your job now – you won’t do it in the future either ..
Going to school is a kids “job” when they are young – just like the one mom and dad have … except at school – your earning your pay of the future rather than now
if hes like me (a smart kid who can pass tests with homework or studying) he WONT feel that homework is important. I quit doing homework in 7th grade because i realized i didnt need to, i am now starting my first year of college.
The only reason i didnt fail EVERY class is because my mom went through my backpack EVERY day, and forced me to do homework.
I would suggest taking all of his privileges away (like TV and anything he enjoys) until his homework is completed. If he forgets at school, that is no excuse, you should give him manual labor choirs around the house until he can remember.
Suffer through it! I went through this last year with my son as well (sixth grade, too). He was failing most of his classes and it was because he was not doing/turning in his homework. We did everything we knew to do. He was grounded almost the entire year and we even took away his birthday party (which was harder on me than it was on him!). He passed the sixth grade, but with mostly C’s and D’s. I think it is a maturity thing because this year he has straight A’s and B’s and does all of his homework without me even asking him to.
I don’t think you’ll ever get him to realize that doing his homework is important.
For one thing, I’d make sure he brought every book home every night, including weekends. That way, he’d never “forget” a book. I’d go and pick him up and ask to check his desk to make sure he didn’t “forget” his books, even if it embarrassed him. In fact, that’s what I’d hope for. If he “forgot” a book or two, I’d drive him back to school to get it. (Explain what you’re doing to the teacher so that she’s expecting it.) I’d tell him that once he started being responsible, he could start bringing the books home that he needs to do the homework.
Further, if that’s wasn’t working, we’d start with extracurricular activities, such as soccer. Not responsible enough for school, not responsible for other activities. He’d have to carry a “C” average, even a “B” much like many coaches do.
If there aren’t any teams or such things, there would be no computer, except for school work, no video games, no TV, no cell phone (though I don’t think a 6th grader should have one anyway), no phone calls, etc. He’d pretty much do nothing but school work until his grades were up and assignments were completed. He might not understand why it’s important, but he’d realize that if he didn’t do what needs to be done in school, he wouldn’t be doing anything else.
Take him to McDonald’s and have the manager show him around the back… tell him that that will be his future if he doesn’t buckle and down and get good grades. Ask him if he wants to spend 8 hours a day in front of a fryer, not having much money for the finer things in life, barely getting by…
Take away any distractions or something fun he enjoys doing until he gets his homework done. Also reinforce the fact that if he doesn’t succeed in school he most likely will not be a successful person and live the life he idolizes when he gets older.
pretty much like everyone else said. rewards and punishment. make sure you make him realize that you arent going to just sit there and be okay with him not doing his homework. he doesnt get to do anything until he does his homework. im only 15, but i see this with my brother. hes gotten his video games, guitars, dirtbikes, fourwheelers, dirtbikes, and tv taken away from him. he is supposed to now do it as soon as he gets home from school before he can do any of those things that he loves doing. think of things your son does all the time, instead of his homework and tell him if he doesnt do his homework. he wont be aloud to do anything until its done. giving him an award after every day he does his homework is too much, and thats what he should be doing in the first place. so maybe do something special after ever quarter if he gets good grades. a nice treat. :]
My daughter is 6 and in the 2nd grade she has a job, her only job is SCHOOL! She has small chores of corse but her allowance is based on her spelling tests, math tests, etc. Also sit with him and help when you can. Homework habits have to be formed early, it is kinda late in the game to change it but it is not too late! Don’t make him do home work as soon as he walks in the door, give him about 30 min. to unwind, would you want to do work as soon as you got home from work? No! Neither does he. Second no TV should be on when doing home work, instead try putting music on in the back ground. Next have a small snack on the table (chips, fruit, etc) for him to eat during home work. If he has a lot of home work have him break up the subjects, lets say 2 before dinner (if he finishes them before dinner he is free to do as he wants) and 2 after (save the easiest two for this time slot. Do not yell if he makes mistakes, and after the home work is done and correct put it away, do not look at it do not talk about it (unless there is a test) Good luck.
Make homework the first priority. I give my son about 10 (tv-free, video game-free, computer-free) minutes to unwind when we get home, then it is homework time. I sit with him until his homework is done. Once homework is done, then he gets to watch tv, play video games, or go on the computer. If he doesn’t complete his homework (which would include “forgetting” to bring something home) he doesn’t get to do any of these things for the whole night. If he gives me a very hard time about doing homework, he gets a very limited amount of time to spend watching tv, etc. I also make sure I reward consistency. If he does his homework for the entire week, he gets a small reward on the weekend.
I also agree with the person that told you to have him teach you what you don’t understand. It will help his self-confidence to know that he’s teaching you, and it will also reinforce what he’s learned in school.
well theres loads of different ways to make him do his home work but it depends on him which is the right ways to do it.
you can take things off him but might not work den theres treats but that dont always work, i’ve always thought the best way to do it is say u will seal all is favourt things in the world if he dont do his home work then when he hasnt done his work give one of his things 2 one of his friends mum pertending ur sealin it and he wont get it bac till he does his home work.
it worked on me so give it a try if it dont work you’ll have to keep tryin other ideas.
Show him some homeless people and tell him that most of them didn’t value learning, and that’s where they ended up.
This is about who’s in control. Read, understand and follow two books. They will change first your behavior, then your daughter’s:
It must be a 6th grade thing, as my son is doing the exact same thing. He “forgets” his homework in his locker, or he did it at school and the teacher must have lost it. Or, he forgot it was homework. We bought him a planner so he could write his assignments down, and the teachers were even signing it, but still no homework was getting done. His first report card came home, 2 f’s. He blew it off saying there were 2 a’s as well and there is always next grading period. New grading period has started, and the same thing still going on. The school has a website where you can keep track of missing assignments and grades. We have tried taking things away, he now only has clothes in his bedroom (along with his furniture). He has been grounded to his room, but it does no good either. We reward him when he does get a good grade and does all his homework, but then it is back to the same thing the next day. Now his attitude at school has gotten out of control, along with his lies. He has been to the office at least 3 times we are aware of, as the principal calls us and sends home a copy of the referral. The last tiem he got a referral, he was passing notes with vulgar language, then told the principal that we already knew about it and didn’t care. So, he also got in trouble for lying to the principal. We have ran out of ideas. We tried explaining to him that school is very important, but he has all the answers. He said he would just be a janitor. We told him you had to be able to do basic math, ready, writing, etc to do that so he said he would just be a bum and live on the street. We tried the McDonalds thing like someone suggested before me, and he loved it. He said it would be cool to be able to sit around and play video games while he told everyone else what to do. Not sure where he got that idea, but that is what he thinks happens. I am hoping he will grow out of this soon, as I am going insane trying to deal with it.
And before anyone says it, it has nothing to do with the parents. My other 2 children do not act anything like him. I am starting to believe it may be genetic, as his father was the exact sameway
By the time a child is in the 6th grade their homework is THEIR responsiblity. If he doesn’t want to do it then HE will be the one to face the consequences which will be failing and having to be held back in school while his peers move on up. Believe me this will NOT bring on the end of the world. My daughter flunked out of highschool in her senior year. She had to go to adult education in order to get her GED which she did in TWO months, then enrolled in college that she is getting ready to graduate from after maintaining a 3.5 GPA for the past 2 years. She has been accepted into a 4 year SC University as well as being accpeted into the Sourbone (University) in France (France’s equivilant of Oxford). And she did it on her own…after failing highschool…