I just happen to be at Karen’s house this week, and she has great experience with 14yo boys (which I don’t 🙂 ). Here is how she handles this situation.
From Karen: We’ve always used the whole house for school work. The kids have had the freedom to choose where they want to do their school work, for the purpose of eliminating distractions. If a child is distracted by his surroundings, I strongly encourage him to go someplace where it is less distracting. Set a timer (maybe 20 minutes) and let him know that he needs to give a good concentrated effort for that time. If he has a hard time keeping focus for 20 minutes, you might back off the time and then gradually increase it as he develops more of a habit of attention. You can tell if he has given concentrated effort by the amount of work and quality that was done. For Epsilon level work, I would probably expect half a page of work done correctly in 15 to 20 minutes.
I would also add that if he still has a struggle staying focused when he’s by himself, you may need to sit with him for a few math sessions just to be a visual reminder of staying on task. You can sit quietly in the room and read a book (so you aren’t accused of distracting) and glance up every now and then to make sure he’s still concentrating. Once he gets used to giving full attention with your presence, you could gradually wean him away from your physical presence and use the timer instead.
Does anyone else have any suggestions or experiences to share on this?
