I don’t give lots of parenting advice on my blog for several reasons. One. Not everyone reading this is a momma. Two, I’m not an expert at being a parent. I just do what I know and feel is best for each circumstance we’re in and pray that I’m doing and teaching my kids the best that I can. That’s all we can in do in everything in life, right? So today I can’t help but share this golden nugget that happened to me that I hope can help any other parents. And I might add that this little strategy could be helpful in so many things in life. Not just homework.
So… most of you have heard me talk about my daughter but not so much about my son. This little guy is one heck of a lovie. He’s definitely a momma’s boy and he’s as laid back as it gets, but gets wound up when he needs to be. He’s a total intellect and loves to find focus in his work. I remember him being 5 years old, sitting at the kitchen table doing Lego’s for hours in silence, building these masterpieces that were for ages 11-13 years old. Those big ones usually in 3 hours. I swear I think he’s a little mastermind.
But when it comes to peeling his cute little hiney off of the Minecraft and whatever these games he’s playing with his headset on while he’s talking to 5 friends through the internet… to do HOMEWORK? ya… good luck with that.
Well, this summer he had to tackle some books and do some follow up work that went with it.
Read? Are you kidding? Um, NO thank you. He did NOT want to read. But he knew he had to. And so the struggle is real. So instead of going through the YOU’RE GROUNDED UNTIL YOU FINISH, because it was making him LESS productive, I tried a different method.
Break it down into chunks and do several chunks per day. In between, he could play, he could watch tv, he could swim, he could do whatever his heart desired. But he knew he had to do X amount each time and got relief. Instead of looking at this BIG book to read.
So, read 50 pages, take a break. Then read 50 pages, then take a break. Then read 25 pages, then take a break. Guess what? In just a few days, it will be mission accomplished. By breaking it up into small chunks, the task at hand doesn’t seem so overwhelming. Instead, each chunk he has to read is all he looks at each time, instead of the WHOLE book. It doesn’t look so scary and unachievable after all.
When he finished, he was BEYOND excited! It was SO cute and SO cool to see his gratification that he completed it and he did so not even feeling like this had to read this BIG book.
Same goes for anything that seems like a huge task you need to take on. I used to be a Weight Watcher’s leader, and I remember sharing that same philosophy in weight loss. If you have to lose 50 pounds, don’t look at that. Look at losing 5 at a time. You lost 5? Great! High fives! You’re that much closer, AND if you did 5, you can do 5 more… and keep going.
Like I said, I’m no expert, I just share my life experiences with all of you. How to complete an overwhelming task. Just a recent life lesson I wanted to share with you. If you find this helpful, pass this on to anyone experiencing this. A teacher, a parent, even someone challenged with a large amount of weight loss. Or even just post it… someone who you might know could use this nugget of advice.
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