by Kyla Stelling

Today’s technologically advanced world is fast-moving and reliant on instant gratification. This is a detrimental cultural trait for your child to inherit, as it will stifle their ability to focus, engage in critical thinking and be creative. Your child may frequently stray from their homeschool work due to distractions. Be aware of this behavioral pattern, as it can become a habit that negatively affects their academic aptitude and long-term success.

Luckily, there are methods and tools that will help you teach your children how they can be mindful of their tendency to stray from school work. Here are some tips on how you can help your child make use of methods and tools to develop a motivated and focused mindset within the homeschool environment:

Meditation

Frequent practice of meditation will increase your child’s focus and mindfulness, so they may improve their engagement during your lessons and stay on-task for the projects you’ve assigned. Meditation has been proven to help individuals take control of their thoughts and go about their daily life with intention. Discuss with your child how mindfulness and meditation will help them in their everyday homeschooling experience. Explain that this practice will decrease their tendency to become distracted by elements of the home environment, and will help remedy their frustration when they struggle to complete academic work. A minute of mindfulness, where your child closes their eyes and thinks about goals for their school session or daily tasks, will greatly help them establish intention. For longer meditative sessions, use the Headspace app, which provides guided meditations. These meditation sessions are ten minutes long, are child-friendly and are designed for specific goals like focus, creativity, relationships and more.

Digital Distractions

Digital tools — like smartphones, tablets and laptops — are essential for your educational lessons at home. They are valuable resources for informational searches and word processing, however their entertainment capabilities are temptations for distraction. Your child may struggle to see how these tech gadgets should only be used for academic productivity as a homeschool student, since they are also used in the home for downtime fun and leisure. Help your child use these tools properly and place restrictions on how they interact with them. You can employ apps during the school day that only allow access to specific features of their tablet or smartphone, so they stay on task. Make sure you choose your tech tools strategically, so they have built-in features that support parental control. The Samsung Galaxy S7 allows restricted access to a single app, for example. The rest of the phone’s apps and programs can only be unlocked with a parent-controlled, pin password.

Tasking

If your child is faced with a large, time-intensive task within their homeschool work, they may find it daunting and avoid it. As their parent and teacher, you should be be aware that you can’t always be present and support your child’s focus. Help them become more self-sufficient and break down large, daunting projects into smaller, more doable projects. Provide a whiteboard, in your learning space, where they can write down a checklist of smaller work activities that will help them complete the larger project at hand. This to-do list will keep them engaged and they will have an easier time accomplishing their work. This practice will also teach them how they can break down their responsibilities and develop self efficacy in their academic abilities. The feeling of accomplishment will be rewarding for them and will boost both focus and morale.

Long-term Motivation

Teach your children the value of long-term motivation and achievement, versus instant gratification. Take some time out of your scheduled school day and initiate a conversation about goal-setting, where you discuss what they’d like to accomplish. Establishing their sense of academic agency will help them realize their big-picture aspirations and start their day with purpose. These dreams and goals will inspire their passion, which is major fuel for motivation and interest in what they’re doing. Make sure you design their curriculum so it activates their brain — relate school material to their non-academic hobbies and shape your method of instruction to accommodate the way in which they learn. For homeschooling methods of instruction guidelines, visit the Parents magazine website.