When Reading Can Also Distract

It has always been said that teaching your kids to like reading is a good thing. However, there are also times when reading can be a distraction. How?

If you have kids of school age and they happen to be swamped with homework, which do you think they will want to read first — their school books or other reading materials? Your kid’s K-Zone Magazine or even a book he picked up on his own will of course be more interesting than say, his Science or Math book.

How do you handle such a situation? It is impossible to keep all non-school reading materials out of reach, not unless you have very big closets. It is important then to get your child to develop good study habits. After a few minutes of rest and after a snack when he or she comes home from school, your child must understand, that it is time to do homework. He or she will be allowed to read other materials or to play when homework is finished.

The amount of homework that a child gets varies from school to school and from age to age. It is highly unlikely that kids will be able to study for a huge block of time given their nature as kids. If your child really wants to read something else other than his or her school books, you may want to give your kid a break after an hour of studying. Give your child 15 minutes to read any other material that he or she likes before continuing with his or her homework.

Nowadays, children in middle school (from the age of 9 and up) in the Philippines may need to do homework and/or study for about an hour and a half to two hours to ensure that all schoolwork is absorbed and done. Two 15-minute reading breaks is something that you may wish to consider then if your child cannot wait until the end of his or her study session before taking a peek at his or her book or magazine.

In this way, you will ensure that your child gets to complete schoolwork and you can also continue to foster his or her interest in reading.

1 comment so far ↓

#1 raqgold on 09.17.07 at 2:31 am

wow, i havent thought about it like that. my kids love reading too, but refocusing on the things that should be read should also be done in the future when they start school. thanks for sharing.

From Angel: Hi! Thanks for dropping by and for leaving a comment. I actually didn’t think about this angle until about a few days ago when I saw my son reading his K-Zone magazine when I told him to do his homework already! Kids will be kids and parents will be parents. We will always need to guide up to a certain point.

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