Have you read aloud to your child only to realize they’ve left for Mars? Let’s face it. It’s hard to keep your kids interested in their education. Here are some tips!
How to Keep Kids Interested and Engaged
Use Whiteboards
The first tip I have is to use whiteboards to change up the kids’ writing, spelling, and math assignments. Writing on a sheet of paper all the time gets old. Nothing ever changes.
So keep kids interested and engaged is to have them use a whiteboard for their schoolwork.
Give them a bunch of pens in various colors such as red, blue, green, and purple. Next encourage your kids to do their problems on the whiteboard. Post purple math problems on the white board to solve. Have them write spelling words using every color you have.
Complete the writing assignment on the board instead of using a pencil and paper. Just remember to snap a picture of your child’s masterpiece before erasing it.
Pull out the stuffed animals and tell your kids they’re now the teachers. They’re going to teach their critters how to add and subtract this morning.
Use the whiteboard to keep your children interested and engaged!
Short Frequent Lessons
Let’s face it. Kids have short attention spans, so keep your lessons short and frequent. I’ve noticed that my 1st grader tends to tune me out if I’m talking for more that 10 minutes on one topic. This means it’s better to do a few minutes of science and history everyday than to attempt one long lesson a week.
So I sit down with my 1st and 2nd grader every morning. We spend a few minutes reciting “The Caterpillar” by Christina G. Rosetti. Next we read a short passage about elephants and do a quick narration, before moving on to read about the Wright Brothers.
The best part of keeping the lessons short and frequent is the kids’ retention increases! They may not remember what you studied last week, but they do remember what you studied yesterday.
Change Things Up
Doing your lessons the same way every day is boring, but changing things up keeps your kids interested. You’ll actually enjoy homeschooling with engaged kids.
For instance grab the kids and head off to the libraryor the park. Homeschool out of the house for a day. Make certain the kids know they need to complete a couple lessons before they run off to play. But running around the play group between lessons will keep your kids interested throughout the day.
Or you can stay home and pretend to be a pirate. Wear an eye patch and say “aaargh” as you teach the kids. Break up the lessons with a spontaneous sword fight outside. Believe me, the kids will pay close attention to everything you say and do, because they won’t want to miss one moment of the fun!
The secret to keeping your kids interested and engaged is to change the tone of the lesson the moment you notice a child beginning to orbiting towards Mars. Change your voice, run outside to play tag, and ask your child to narrate what they’ve learned so far. You’ll soon bring them back to earth and engage them in your homeschool.
What’s your favorite way to keep your kids interested and engaged?
English College says
Kids interest really matters in all their activities. Thanks for sharing such a wonderful article.