Why Keep Lessons Short

I see that look in my son’s eyes again; the one that tells me his mind is wandering off. He becomes caught up in a daydream, which I will no doubt soon hear about, and is neglecting his work.

This used to be a constant issue for us. He would daydream or dawdle through his work and it would end up taking forever. I would remind him over and over and eventually, it would become an issue that truly did interrupt his work for the day.

I am so glad that we found a solution that worked for him. It has given us many easy homeschool days and his daydreaming is now an after-school pastime.

What I didn’t understand before was the basis for the habit of attention. Now, you may be like I was when I first discovered this. I didn’t think that attention was a habit at all, but it turns out that it actually is.

The Bad Habit of Dawdling

My son had gradually created a bad habit of daydreaming and dawdling through his work. Had I realized how habits are created in young children, I would have never let this happen, but since I didn’t know then what I do now, we had to tackle this problem this year.

Children need to be taught how to pay attention from a very young age. This is actually really easy to do and it can begin in the preschool years. The process starts out very slowly. A good time to start this is when you sit down to read them a book.

Start with a Short Book

Little children love having stories read to them. They usually like short books with colorful pictures to start with. You can usually keep a baby’s attention with a storybook for a few minutes. As they get older, gradually encourage them to pay attention to the story a little longer. Increase the time little by little until they can pay attention through an entire five minutes of reading. That’s all, just five minutes.

It seems simple enough, right? This one thing will be a huge benefit as they get old enough for regular school days. Try to aim for ten minutes by the time they reach kindergarten. Just read something that they are very interested in and encourage them to give their full attention to it for the whole ten minutes.

Short Lessons Build Attention

If you are able to build this habit over the years before your child starts school, then you will save yourself some time and effort. However, if you are like me and already have a child that is older that has the habit of dawdling through work, there is a simple approach to this problem as well.

The key is short lessons. My six-year-old only has to pay attention to school work for no longer than 15 minutes at a time. That’s right, just 15 minutes. It’s usually closer to 10 even. Keeping his lessons very short allows him to give his best effort and full attention to his work.

Short, interesting lessons build the habit of attention. I make sure that the work I put in front of him is something interesting and that he is able to do but still challenging. First, I remind him that he only has to pay attention for 15 minutes. If it is a subject that I know he has a particularly hard time focusing on, I make it 10 minutes.

How It Looks in Action

When I first tried this, I would have to remind him a couple of times to give it his full attention because he only had to pay attention for a little while. He couldn’t grasp how long 10 minutes was at first, so I set a timer and he began to realize just how short a time span that really was. This encouraged him a lot.

It’s important to start slow and gradually build on this concept. If this is a particularly hard issue for your child, you can start with five minutes and build on that. No matter the age, start slow and build.

This method is carried on throughout all of the homeschool years, gradually increasing their attention span. For grades 1-3, lessons should last 10-15 minutes. For grades 4-6, lessons can increase to 20-30 minutes and for grades 7-9, they can do 30-45 minutes.

Is That Really Enough?

Now, I’m sure some of you are thinking exactly what I was thinking when I first heard of this method. That’s not enough time for a 6^th or 9^th grader. Well, actually, it is. My 6^th grader spends less than 45 minutes on even the toughest subjects.

To be able to do this, the lesson material must be interesting and not filled with a lot of unnecessary stuff. If your child loses interest, change subjects for a while and come back to that one later. This is a process. Don’t rush it. It took my six-year-old a couple of months to fully build this habit but it was well worth the time and effort. If you still don’t believe me though, try it for yourself.

Replacing the Bad Habit with a Good One

You can replace the habit of daydreaming with the habit of attention by keeping lessons short. You will love the results that doing this has. You will find that your child does quality work when they know that they only have to do it for a short while. You will find that they are less distracted throughout the rest of their day, too.

If your child still dawdles after you have implemented all of the steps of this method, you may have to hand out some natural consequences for a while. First, try to schedule your child’s day to their advantage. Do work when they are at their best, especially the hard subjects.

Natural Rewards and Consequences will Help

Kids love to get the reward of free time if the work is done in the allotted time frame. This is a great encouragement for them. But if they still drag through their lessons, natural consequences such as a loss of free time or a favorite privilege can be just the boost needed to break this bad habit.

The habit of daydreaming through schoolwork can be replaced by the habit of full attention. This is a great gift that you are giving your child. You are giving them smooth and easy days which lead to a great life.