Homeschooling
the Dawdler
Seldom
do I give a "Getting it All Done" workshop that I do not get
this question, "My child manages to draw out every school assignment
he is given. This ends us making the rest of the family have to wait on
him before we can go on to our next activity. I really feel like he could
do the work more quickly, but he just dawdles rather than applying himself
to his task. What do I do?"
What
about you? Is one of your children a classic dawdler? He/she sits down
to do a page of math and within a minute is up sharpening his pencil.
Back to the book, the child is soon noticed looking out the window and
thumbing through the book. Pretty soon a drink is called for and within
minutes of returning from that a bathroom break is taken. Sound familiar?
First
I encourage you to discern whether the fact that your child cannot complete
an assignment in the allotted time is because he is incapable of doing
the work or because he is a dawdler. Here is how we made this determination.
We had a son who could spend two hours or more in front of his math book
without completing more than two or three problems on his two pages worth
or work. We certainly didn’t want to deal with this as a character
issue if it were an ability deficiency.
One
evening about 5:00 p.m. after this child had sat at the table with his
math book in front of him most of the after school afternoon, his dad
announced, "I have just ordered pizza for dinner. It will be here
in 30 minutes. Anyone who has all their school work completed may join
us for pizza. Others can have a sandwich by themselves when their school
is finished."
Steve
happened to know the current situation with this child and that the other
children had long before turned in all their school work. This was a test
for our "dawdler." You will never believe the results! Pencil
went to paper ,and within fifteen minutes that child had every math problem
completed on that lesson, and he had done a great job accuracy wise!
I
had felt that he could easily complete his math on 30 minutes but had
allowed him 45 minutes just to be sure. It was confirmed. We had a character
issue to work with not an ability one.
The
way we handle this situation in our home is that the children are required,
barring unusual circumstances, to finish any school work they did not
get done in their scheduled time during their free time later in the day.
The more I am consistent with enforcing this, the more progress we see
in our children applying themselves during their scheduled school time.
It is absolutely no fun to watch your siblings out playing while you sit
and complete what you could have done earlier in the day when they were
working, too, and not available for play.
I
can honestly tell you it is difficult for me to be consistent in this
area. I want to make excuses in my heart for them and allow them to head
out with the others for their free time. The truth, of course, is that
I am not doing them any favors by not enforcing our policy nor am I doing
myself any favors.
The
characteristics of a dawdler may be seen in other areas of their life
perhaps when chore time arrives. One thing which our dawdler thrives on
is some motivation to get him moving just as in the pizza story I shared
with you. A time deadline that is short and immediate can also help him
focus on the need to keep at the task. You might try using a timer which
you or the child can set for a determined amount of time, and then the
child will have a visual reminder of the need to continue with his job
or school work.
Here
is a short testimonial I recently received on just what we are suggesting
here.
