Bored kids, harried parents, doodles, and eventual screaming matches? Let’s face it. Worksheets are bad news. While teachers mean well in using it to learn or reinforce a concept for the kids, the fact remains that kids see worksheets as nothing but a tedious piece of work.
Parents and remote learning
As an aftereffect of the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, schools started implementing modular systems. Teachers had to limit interaction with students and pile on worksheets instead. The students’ learning guidance is also left for the parents to handle. The high-strung kids typically engaged in school during the day are forced to stay home and learn with their parents.
Needless to say, parents, especially the homemakers, do not have brighter scenes at home.
Nanette Casihan-Mangi, a mother of two students who transitioned to studying with worksheets because of the pandemic, said, “I love my kids but having to deal with them and also help them with their lessons and numerous worksheets cut through the time for household chores. There is already too much housework. But, with the addition of bored kids who need to answer their worksheets, even the best parents can be overwhelmed.”
Before we start painting kids with worksheets as evil incarnate, here’s an important note: Though the worksheets have negative effect on kids, it is still a tool that can make learning easier for students.
Tips to keep your kids eager to study and answer their worksheets
So, for the harried parents who are just about ready to tear their hair in frustration, here are some tips you can incorporate in your kids’ learning process to help them stay more engaged, less bored, and less time-consuming.
- Give them attention and directions.
Boredom, for kids, means that they need direction. Whether it’s parents or teachers, getting bored while doing school activities can mean they need attention and direction. By devising a reward system or a timer technique for doing their worksheets and homework alone and within time limit, you get to encourage their competitive bones while watching their progress. These will make your kids feel the cared for, secure, safe, and most importantly, pressured.
- Give them a flexible schedule – including the time to do nothing.
Kids, being kids, are always like little balls of curiosity, who are constantly looking for things to do. That said, they get bored and restless when they experience the nothingness of boredom or are given activities that they loath.
When this happens, parents rush to “save” their kids by giving them something to do. Like what YourDOST Senior Psychologist Gayathri Rao said, parents believe that “every child needs to have physical activity and cognitively stimulating tasks every day.”
However, research says that this ‘time spent doing nothing’ is important for the kids. This time lag allows kids to find out-of-the-box entertainment and develop their characteristics, personality, and creative abilities.
- Give them time to interact with family and friends, however remote.
Another thing parents can let their kids have is interaction with parents and friends. Whether as study buddy or support or for fun, interaction with other people is important for a sound mental state. It can also fuel the innate competition between kids which is typically found in classroom settings. Not only that, they can also use this interaction to help each other with their lessons, hence freeing some time for the parents.
This will also help the kids feel contented and happy working on their homework and worksheets on their own.
Unstructured time
Unstructured time is one of the most effective solutions to boredom. Combined with these tips, you should be able to support your children and keep them engaged to workout their school works with great enthusiasm and minus the effort.
When your kids start enjoying their worksheets, and you think they need more, you may visit Education PH. There you can find all kinds of learning materials that are geared to give your child a head start in school.