Ideas on Keeping a Day Dreamer on Track.

Well, I don't home school, but I have a day dreamer and it is terrible. unless I am sitting next to her and asking her questions about her homework it just doesn't get done.

When she was younger and I had two less kids than I do now, I would make home work a game with her. We would race. I would copy down her math problems and we would race to see who could get them done first and then who got them all right. This was the only way I could keep her engaged in the task. Unfortunately it took away my time for helping my son who had homework, but he was able to work well independently.
Now I have a nursing baby and my husband works hours where he can really only help on the weekends with homework, so her homework is a huge challenge lately, but if I am right there with her, making her teach me (making it a game - for her) she stays focused.

Good luck

Have you ever tried making a game out of it?
One game I used to play with my brothers when homeschooling them
Was, take the spelling words and have them do as many words as they could before the timer beeped. At the end of the timer I came in and quizzed them to see how many they could do on their own. The ones they got right deserved a shiny sticker. If they got a certain amount of shiny stickers that week, we did something really fun together like play a board game. Watch a movie, go biking etc... This was really fun for them, as well as give me time to work with the other children, and spend private time with each of them as well! I did notice that if they weren't getting as many stars and getting frustrated it was because they really didn't understand the work I was asking of them, and needed to make it easier for them to understand.
I hope this helps.
God Bless
J.

My first year homeschooling I ran into the same issue with time. Like previously suggested, I found a timer to be quite helpful. I'd set it for an appropriate time to finish the task with 10-min physical activity, music, art, and "Free Write" breaks between assignments. My daughter too is imaginative and enjoys writing and drawing so I'd give her a topic in the morning and she'd write and illustrate during her breaks. At the end of the week she'd act out the story for the fam using the dances, songs, and artwork she made up. With her creative needs met, she became more focused and more eager to get her other learning done.

Perhaps you could use a timer, set with a limit that is reasonable for that assignment? For example, if you think the spelling words should only take 10 minutes, maybe set the timer for 15 or 20 minutes. This might give her a sense of "urgency" (don't confuse this with stressing her out), that, like in a game, might keep her on track. Just like adults, sometimes we need a deadline to get the work done. An assignment that's due whenever I get to it is more likely to get pushed across the planner pages than one that needs to be attended to by a certain date. Good luck! I admire you for homeschooling...it's something I've always been interested in and I know it commands a lot of time and effort!

i am a working mother of three and it gets a little hard cause i am young but i always have time to spend with my kids and my middle child is the same way but i have her concentrate and i make it fun for her to do things.

R. -

I have a coupkle of little ones that had that problem also and were diagnosed with ADD. Something to look into and I can understand not wanting to put your child on medication also, but it did help alot with mine.