How to Teach Your Child to Stay on Task

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Are you struggling to teach your child to stay on task?

They wiggle. They squirm. And they tell you about every thought that enters their head.

Yet they can’t complete a single problem on their worksheets.

Frustrating, isn’t it!

What if I told you there’s a simple secret to teaching kids to stay on task? Are you interested?

Here goes… the secret is…

Chocolate chips!

Chocolate chips are not only for stressed-out homeschool moms to munch on crazy days. They’re also perfect for little treats, or bribes, to encourage your kids to speed up their schoolwork.

And to teach your child to stay on task.

Now, I don’t use them for my older kids, but chocolate chips are perfect for kids learning phonics.

There’s a point where phonics seems to get hard. In fact, it happens just before my kids take off with independent reading. At this stage, my children wiggle, complain, and squirm.

If they’re truly struggling, I will go back a month or so and review the material.

But often, my kids aren’t struggling. It’s simply hard to learn how to read.

It’s hard to master the silent ‘e’ rules. And it’s hard to internalize the information to a point where they can quickly and effortlessly retrieve the information when they need it.

And it’s hard learning to stay on task.

And it’s hard to teach your child to stay on task.

So I use chocolate chips. Here’s a chocolate chip for every word, line, or sentence read!

  • Word – when my child is learning a new concept and it’s requires concentration and takes him to the point of frustration, I’ll give a chocolate chip for every word read.
  • Line – if the information is easier, and we’re working towards mastery, I’ll often give a chocolate chip for every line.
  • Sentences – he’s to the point where most of the words in a sentence are easy. So when we have a line of sentences to read, I’ll simply place the chocolate chip at the end of the sentence and let him go!

This method to teach your child to stay on task works beautifully.

And you don’t need to stick to chocolate chips! I’ve also used little bites of cheese, M&Ms, marshmallows, and crackers.

The type of food doesn’t matter. All that does matter is the little bit of inspiration to deal with the frustration and teach my kids to stay on task. 

And I keep the treats small because my kids don’t need a full candy bar as an inspiration. I’m looking for a little nudge to keep them on task. To keep them trying.

So if you’re looking around the pantry for a little treat for your young kids, look for something small. Small, like that bag of chocolate chips you hid to help you deal with a bad day.

Do Kids Keep Needing a Bribe to Focus?

You know, I’ve never found that my kids need food to keep them on task once they’ve learned the basics. Instead, my kids actually become avid readers because they had that little reward at the end of a hard reading sequence. They did well and they know it!

My 16-year-old, who I started bribing in desperation at 4, certainly doesn’t need chocolate chips to read the Aeneid or History of the Ancient World. Instead, now his treat is the treat of all avid readers.

The delight of telling me everything he learned as I’m driving him to his various activities!

 Eventually, the kids learned to focus. They learned to stay on task. And they no longer needed chocolate chips to keep going.

So if you’re worried about your kids needing to be bribed forever to stay on task, it doesn’t work that way. Probably because I don’t pull out the chocolate chips for our phonics works. The part that gets super hard and frustrating.

So if you’re looking for a way to teach your kids to stay on task, consider pulling out the chocolate chips.

These sweet little treats turn math, writing, and phonics from subjects that frustrate and breakdown your child into subjects you can use to teach your child to stay on task.

To focus without collapsing on the floor in tears.

So save yourself frustration and heartache. Use chocolate chips to teach your kids to stay on task!

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teach your child to stay on task