Being there for your kids - Mutual respect sets the tone for schooling

Episode Date: May 30, 2020

When helping your child with schooling, balance your approach. As you can work with each other with mutual respect, the task becomes easier and quicker for each of you. Use your active listening to settle your child into task. Brainstorm options for task completion. Plan ahead and use a daily planner dry erase board so that your child knows what to expect each moment of each school day. Give clear, specific, and time sensitive for better cooperation. The more creative and unique you can make the tasks, and the more involved you can get your child in the process, the better the outcome.

Hi, I'm Dr. John Robinson, and this is Teachable Moments. Recently, I posted my top 10 tips for homeschooling success, whether it's just helping with homework or being full-time homeschooled teacher to them. Now I'm elaborating on each item on the list. Parenting tip number four is this. Earn respect with active listening, healthy boundaries, and direction. When tasking yourself with helping your child, either in completion of homework or in full-on homeschooling, begin the process with mutual respect.

for each other and for the process. Let's face it, for the majority of school-age kids, school is not a priority. For many, the attitude runs from I don't want to, let's get this over with. As parents, we can help build curiosity and novelty into the process, but benefits are short-lived. For a few outliers, school is either fun or a means to an end. For most every child, school is where they meet their friends and where they hang out. Even this advantage is curtailed during these pandemic times where on-site schooling is closed for now. So, cranking up homeschooling involves gaining mutual respect. Start by exploring with your children the strategies you could use to help them. When you get dismissal or resistance, use active listening to help their emotional fever go down.

Try to get them to buy into a brainstorming about ways to tackle homeschooling. Work on the plan for school days together and write it down. Use a dry erase daily planner so that your child knows what to expect and when the breaks are. Set healthy boundaries with behavior management principles of reward and consequence for on-task and task completion behavior. Make your directions clear, specific, and time-sensitive. Remember, any wiggle room you give your child, he will find it and use it to avoid, distract, and manipulate.

The more fun, involved, unique, and creative you can make his lesson plans, the more likely he will get into the process and make you proud. mutual respect, active listening, healthy boundaries, and clear and specific direction, homework completion and homeschooling can be a positive experience for both of you. I'm Dr. Jonathan C. Robinson, licensed clinical psychologist, and Christian author of the book Teachable Moments Building Blocks of Christian Parenting. And this has been Teachable Moments. Teachable Moments, Building Blocks of Christian Parenting is available online at AmazonBooks.com and in local and national bookstores. More on Dr. Robinson at TMC-P-I-N-C.com.