How to Teach Child Responsibility for School Work

Have you notice your child seems to forget things at school. It can be very frustrating knowing your child has work or items at school that they need at home. If your child seems to be forgetting things a lot maybe its time to teach your child to take responsibility for their belongings. The earlier you teach your child to take responsibility for their belongings the better. Responsibility is a characteristic that will be needed by your child throughout their life and sooner or later your child will need to learn responsibility to become a productive person. There are things parents can do to help teach children to take responsibility and this should start with school work. There are many aspects to teach children responsibility but if you break it down and start with one part of their life it will start to show in other things they do. Below are some things you can do to teach children responsibility for school work.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

1. 
   Organize Locker

   Organize locker: The first step to teach children responsibility for school work it to organize their locker. Show you child how to organize a desk and how this benefits your daily activities. You should suggest that your child stack all their books with the spine facing out. This will make it easier to find the books they are looking for during the day and when its time to head home.

2. 
   Post It Reminders

   Post it reminders: The next thing you should do is give your child a package of post it notes. Explain that the notes are for assignments. You child should write the assignment on the post it note and place it in the book when they have homework. Just leave the bottom of the note showing from the top of the book. At the end of the school day your child can take home any book that has a post it reminder sticking out of it. They not only will make it home with all their homework, they will also have the assignment so they will know what to do at home.

3. School Box: Once your child has successfully completed all their homework you will need to teach them the responsibility of getting the work back to school the next day. Have your child decorate a box for all their school items. Everything school related should be in that box from the moment they get home until they leave for school the next morning. The only time school items should be out of the box is when they are being worked on then returned directly after. You will need to find a convenient place for the box, usually beside the door if possible, and make sure the box is big enough for all the things they need for school. This will save a lot of time in the mornings trying to find items and also make sure they get to school without forgetting school work.

4. 
   Consequences

   Consequences: As the final step to teach children responsibility for school work you should make sure they know and experience the consequences when they do forget an item. Unless medically necessary you should not rush to your child's rescue. If a child never experiences the consequence of forgetting something they can never fully understand the importance of it.

5. Lead by Example: As a parent the most important piece of teaching child responsibility for school work is to lead by example. They look at school like a job so make sure you are not forgetting things for work and are prepared with everything you need when you leave the house in the morning.

6. 
   Real Issues

   If the above steps do not make a difference maybe you will need to access why your child is forgetting things in the first place. Are they looking for attention? Is the work too hard? Does he feel its not important? If you are not able to resolve the issues and teach your child responsibility you may want to see help from a professional. This is an important characteristic and will greatly benefit you child in their future so start teaching responsibility now and things will be much easier for both you and your child in the future.

[kristara]

on 12/5/2009 Great tips for teaching kids to take responsibility for their school work 5*

[harrisdy]

on 11/13/2009 it's not easy, but parents need to teach their kids school work responsibility. 5*

[jswana]

on 10/27/2009 This is article is so very well written on how to teach child responsibilty to school work. thanks for sharing jswana 5*

[momose]

on 9/15/2009 Sometimes the most difficult thing for a parent is allowing the child to experience consequences - for any of their actions, not just school work. Nicely written article with good tips. Thanks, ourlastchance. *****

[djvmann11]

on 9/8/2009 good tips