Help! My Kids Won’t Do Their Schoolwork at Home
Now that school is happening at home, parents are faced with a whole host of new parenting challenges. Not only do you need to do your own job from home, but you also have to supervise your kid’s learning. It can make for very frustrating days – especially when kids want to do anything but schoolwork. We have two suggestions for helping kids focus enough to get their schoolwork done during COVID-19.
Get Your Kids Moving More – A Lot More
Exercise and learning go hand in hand. Studies have shown us that exercise not only improves focus, but also reduces impulsivity. Simply put – kids behave better and learn better when they have had plenty of exercise. Exercise actually helps create new brain cells as well as chemicals that support learning. We should take our cues from countries like Finland where kids consistently test in the top percentile. In Finland, students have a 45-minute learning cycle followed by a 15-minute play and exercise cycle throughout the day.
A study by Henriette van Pragg from the Salk Institute compared sedentary mice with mice that ran three miles each night on a wheel (van Pragg et al 1999). The study revealed that the mice that exercised had dramatic brain growth compared to the mice who did not exercise. The hippocampus of the mice that exercised was twice as large as those who didn’t exercise. And there are countless other studies with human participants that prove that children who get regular exercise learn better.
If your kids are having trouble focusing on their schoolwork these days, ask yourself how much vigorous play and activity they’re getting. Whatever that figure is, it likely needs to increase. If you can, perhaps try the Finland method where you have your kids play and exercise after every 45-minute work cycle. Or, if that’s not easy to implement, just increase it in any way you can. And don’t forget to make it fun – the play part of the equation is just as important as the sweating! Yoga is one way to make exercise challenging and fun – plus you can do it indoors. Download Ninja Focus and get free access to our kids yoga flows for a healthy and fun indoor exercise break.
Play the Right Music to Boost Kids Focus
Music is a powerful tool. It can help lift our spirits when we’re down, calm us, energize us and more. But did you know that the right music has been shown to actually increase focus and attention? A Stanford study found that music moves the brain to pay attention. The research team showed that music engages the areas of the brain involved with paying attention, making predictions and updating the event in memory.
Many parents believe classical music will help kids with focus but this is not usually the case. When it comes to helping young kids focus, you need background tracks composed specifically to help the brain concentrate…like those on the Ninja Focus app. The science-backed Ninja Focus music was composed to help kids concentrate. It contains no vocals and is beautiful, soothing and repetitive; all things shown to help kids focus. You can download the Ninja Focus app right now for free and try it for yourself. We even have tons of adults who use our focus tracks while they’re working to help them concentrate. It really works!
So there you have it, two simple things you can start doing today to help your kids focus on their schoolwork so you can stop banging the proverbial ruler at home!
