Tips for Reluctant Learners
Homework:

• Learn teachers’ expectations for homework assignments, so that you know how often your child will have homework, how much homework to expect, and to what degree they need to work on it independently.
• Don’t be as concerned about helping your child with their homework as with talking about it, finding something of interest about what they are learning, and helping them see home or workplace applications for what they learn at school.
• If teachers don’t assign homework regularly, keep consistent time for home learning by using homework time for independent reading, writing, art, or science activities. Bookstores and libraries have many resources for fun, simple science projects using everyday household items.
• Realize that homework is an important part of a students full program of learning, so allow time on your family schedule. Sports, music lessons and other activities are also very valuable, but should not be at the expense of home learning time.
  

Reading and Writing:

• Keep reading aloud to your children. Often parents stop reading to their children around 2nd or 3rd grade, but if most children will actually enjoy continued bedtime reading with a parent, grandparent throughout their elementary years, and helps to build their own interest in reading.
• Find books in your child’s area of interest. Libraries and bookstores will be very helpful.
• Most children love to receive – and read – their own mail. Children’s magazine subscriptions can be a great motivator. Your child’s teacher or librarian can helps you select a magazine that matches your child’s interest and reading ability.
• Include your child in home projects or cooking by reading the instructions or recipes aloud. Cue them in advance to words that might be beyond their reading level.
• Make journal writing a family practice. Give your children a private journal to write in, and be a role model by keeping a journal of your own. Don’t judge the quality or amount of journal writing. Invite – but don’t require – them to share journal entries with you or other family members, and offer to share your journal entries with them.
  

Math:

• Start a daily math “ritual”. Find a simple way to use math each day. Some examples include:
  - counting the days to the next family birthday
  - keeping a daily chart of the number of phone calls each family member
  - adding up weekly TV or computer use time
  - keeping a tally of the number of miles the family drives each day
  - adding up the number of dirty dishes each day.
• Music incorporates many math concepts. Music lessons and practice can re-enforce understanding of math.
• The grocery store is great place to use math. Have kids help figure out the best bargains, estimate the total cost, weigh produce and check nutritional information on food labels.
• With older children, share information about the family budget and expenses. This provides meaningful, practical ideas about how math is used to manage daily affairs.

Attitude:

• Find out if your child is not being challenged. Find out what services the school offers for high-ability students. Perhaps you and the teacher can plan an extension activity to do at home that would really motivate your child.
• On the other hand, your child may be frustrated by a lack of readiness skills for the work being presented. Tutoring, special education services, or other supports may make a world of difference
• Check with your child and teachers whether and social problems, such as being teased, bullied, or feeling excluded, are keeping your child from liking school, and help your child work through such issues, with the help of teachers or school counselors.
• Attendance is critical. If students miss school often, or are tardy, missing the opening, which sets the tone for each day, they are likely to feel out of step and out of place, along with falling behind in instruction.
• Physical conditions such as a hearing or vision impairment, lack of adequate sleep, or nutritional needs can interfere with kids being able to concentrate and do their best at school.
• Children, like adults, appreciate some form of reward or recognition for their efforts. Set up a system of simple rewards for completing work with their best effort. However, use this for a limited time period (e.g., “For the next two months…) so that your child doesn’t become dependent on external rewards. After experiencing success, it is common for the sense of accomplishment and recognition to be a reward in itself.