Ah, the power of a timer.

[MyBlueLobsters]

Yesterday it took my boys 2 hours to finish math. :001_huh: We ended up doing school until almost 4 because of the 2 hours it took them to do 20 math problems. I decided that today that could NOT happen again. I told them before they started Math that I was setting the alarm on my cell phone for 30 minutes. What they didn't finish in that time would have to be completed after school hours, during play time. And wouldn't you know it! They both finished with 7 minutes to spare! :glare:;)

[Cheryl in NM]

:lol:

That was my experience too!

[Dawn in OH]

We have the same kind of problem here. It's mainly with my son. Last year, in an effort to save my sanity, I began designating an amount of time to finish each assignment. It's different per subject. If you don't finish the assignment in the allotted time, you finish it, as homework, after all the other lessons are completed. He will still dawdle during homework time, but I have noticed if I plan something fun at the end of lessons, that he will be missing out on, he gets the work done much more quickly.

[cani e porci]

That's the approach I'm taking this year after two years of math dragging on for hours. It's worked remarkably well. There were tears the first day DD had to do math at the end of the school day, but she's finished in record time every day since. I wish I'd taken this approach early on!

 

Typing Instructor dangles as bait at the end of the day.

[*********]

Ah yes, we love timers around here, too.

 

Maybe this reflects poorly on me, I'm not sure. But I do love when 'screen time' is over because the timer beeped, not becuase mom nagged that it was time to turn it off. Can't argue with a timer, or beg for 'just one more minute', or even get huffy with it.

 

Yep, I like timers. :)

[emmsmama]

My children are dawdlers too and I've resisted timers because I don't want them to rush their work, however if something should take roughly 30 mins. and I give them an hour then it should give them ample time to get it done properly.

 

With dd I noticed a marked improvement in the amount of time it took her to complete work when I let her work on the workbook pages. I was having her use the workbook and do her work on a seperate lined paper so that I could use the workbook down the road with ds. Math sometimes took hours. Since I've started letting her do the work on the worksheet she has gotten much better, sometimes finishing her math work in 20 mins!