I’ve often heard parents talking about how difficult it is to get their child(ren) to sit down for a project or to do homework. Back then, with just a toddler on my hands, and my only experience of homework being the one I did 25 years back, I simply couldn’t understand. Now, as my son juggles with “Integrated Primary Science” and “Communicative English” in school, I’m surprised at how much he learns everyday.
One day, he came back from school saying he had to take 3 objects for demonstration on the concepts of “transparent, translucent and opaque”. Another day, he needed 5 fun facts on any planet ( he chose Saturn). While I truly enjoy doing these quick 5-minute projects with him, I wonder how he will react when these projects become bigger and take longer. You see – my son ( as most kids this age ) has severe problems sitting down to doing anything which needs him to think constantly on one topic for more than 300 seconds. We have spent endless days of school holidays – zipping from one game to another – Scrabble for 5 minutes, Monopoly for 10, book cricket for 3, UNO for 2, Colouring for 5 (you get the gist) – and still feeling bored 
Then, finally, I decided to take matters into my hands and “prepare” him to learn to concentrate on any one topic for 15 minutes at a stretch.
Our project was the “Atlas” ! We took a big world map which he has and I asked him to draw each continent, write down the names of the countries with their capitals along with places of interest. While I painstakingly drew each minute country in Africa, he took up “South America”. To his credit, he drew each country neatly, coloured them, labelled them and proudly added it to his “map” collection. But all this was done in exactly 7 minutes and he refused to sit down to another. There went my experiment down the drain. But, I’m a staunch follower of King Bruce and I plan to be at it till I succeed !
Do you think I will ?? Do you think my son will finally learn to sit in one place and work ?
Also Read : Working on School Projects
Sitting in one place and concentrate on one activity for a boy.. Impossible- I share the same with my son too.. I am happy that its not unusual.
Couple of reasons, I would attribute to this:
Boys are crazy about outdoor games or just playing outside. They become restless very soon with indoor games. Try this with the girl, she would love to go on and on…
Today’s children are capable of having more and more inputs and not much spare time parents have with their busy schedule. its nice to sit with the kids and participate with their inquisitive questions. My experience is this becomes a learning process for both the parent and the child ! The truth is you learn a lot more than the child !
Ah, the eternal wail of the parent of an energetic child! I think it is a problem with how few avenues our children have today to burn off their energy. So many schools nowadays sacrifice physical education for other ‘less-physical’ activities. Also, no longer do children spend the evening and weekends playing in the neighbourhood with their friends – it is not safe, there are other distractions like video games and TV, or there is too much homework. Children need to be active, and unfortunately we don’t let them, and then wonder why they can’t sit still. Enjoy your lively, bouncing kid – he will soon grow up and quieten down before you know it!
Uma – I completely appreciate your comments – coming from a mother of twins ( a boy and a girl ) , you must know .
Gayatri -thanks for the consolation
If you are under 19 you are a dependent as a child. The age rises to under 24 if you are a full time steudnt. Most likely an online only school would not qualify as a higher educational institution. Was this answer helpful?