How to motivate highschooler to put more time in studies ?

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My older son did so good in school , my daughter is doing great in school Mashallah.
But my younger son is not motivated enough to do his best in school , I am keeping a close tab on him so now he is doing good , he was failing in one class because he was not doing his homework. His teachers say that he is good student in class does great in tests and quizzes but fails to do his homework. Which drags his grade down. He has always been in gifted students programs , not anymore.
I am exchanging emails with his teachers on a daily basis to check what homework he was assigned for the day and following through with him.
He does not like my follow through and I do not like it either so I can I make it automatic like he feels the responsibility and is motivated enough to do it all on his own without the need for my follow through as it happened with older son and is happening with my daughter.

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Re: How to motivate highschooler to put more time in studies ?

You know what I remember being like this at the end of high school.

I performed really well in tests and exams and understood everything and my teachers were always shocked because I never wanted to do my home work.

The reason I didn't do my home work was because at times it wasn't challengeing enough and I found it boring and frustrating.

I also found it really hard to set time aside for homework, i would delay and delay and delay until it was too late just because I didnt really know how to time manage.

My dad taught me how to manage my time - first with discipline so he would set 8-10pm for homework. And he would take away my phone and the turn off the wireless on my laptop :O

But it got me to do my homework, i learnt to time manage and i learnt the satisfaction you get from achieving targets and setting goals also getting my homeowrk done in 2 hours made it more of a challenge and more fun for me to do.

This was really quickly written so I hope it makes sense.

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Re: How to motivate highschooler to put more time in studies ?

It does make lot of sense , that is what I need to do , take away phone and turn off computer unless he needs to use it for homework.
I guess after reading your post I guess I am on the right track.

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Re: How to motivate highschooler to put more time in studies ?

its hard to provide input unless you can give us some insight on your son.....
what interests him? what motivates him?
what would he rather be doing than homework? what are his distractions?
what is his schedule like?

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Re: How to motivate highschooler to put more time in studies ?

He was spending time with friends telling me that he is going to work on this or that subject with his friends. So I have grounded him till his next progress report. I have told him if he wants to do group study , he needs to invite his friends over , now there are no more group studies.
Over the weekend he wanted to go work on chemistry and I asked him why he cannot ask the friends to come over. He said because his friends had setup that program earlier so they cannot change it. I asked him to show me what will he be doing before going and show me what he did , which he obliged to.
So he would rather spend time with friends then study or do homework. He does not need to study hard because he is smart but he has to do his homework to get good grades. Just getting good marks in tests and quizzes is not enough.

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Re: How to motivate highschooler to put more time in studies ?

does he think that by testing well and participating during class he will get by and the homework will not matter?
how are his friends performing? same, better or worse than him? not that I would suggest that you compare but just so you know the circle that he keeps......

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Re: How to motivate highschooler to put more time in studies ?

He knows he cannot. About the grades of his friends , I will not know , they come over , they are well behaved and well mannered kids when they come to my home to hang around.
After my intervention he is even getting extra credits in his tests so it is working , but I want it to become automatic , but I guess that will not happen I will have to be on top of it.

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Re: How to motivate highschooler to put more time in studies ?

then I think you just need to keep up the heat until it becomes habit to him......I have too much faith in your parenting skills to doubt anything you would try.....

btw.....my daughter is the same way.....I have to get on her case to do homework....and she leaves it till the last minute.

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Re: How to motivate highschooler to put more time in studies ?

I am so so grateful to my dad for teaching me time management because now at university I dont struggle. Even though your son might be all angsty now he will thank you in the future.

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Re: How to motivate highschooler to put more time in studies ?

A lot of kids are like that. I would sit down with him and have him finish his homework.

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Re: How to motivate highschooler to put more time in studies ?

I end up having to do this......and over time have noticed that once she has been given that first nudge......she carries on to finish on her own.

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Re: How to motivate highschooler to put more time in studies ?

My daughter is self starter , she is done with her homework before I get home. In the first couple of weeks of school she needed help with homework so I used to help her with it. She does it now on her own.

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Re: How to motivate highschooler to put more time in studies ?

I'm hoping that mine gets that way.....she's still only 8 years old and sometimes I forget that......but yeah....I hope she gets to be a self-starter.....but for now I have to motivate and remind her because she always has at least five other things she wants to be doing when she gets home.

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Re: How to motivate highschooler to put more time in studies ?

He sounds just like my youngest brother. And many of my students, I want to reply to this when I can spend more time. I will be back!

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Re: How to motivate highschooler to put more time in studies ?

Each child is different. It's one thing to tell or talk about your children about time management and studies but a whole different thing to actually show them how to do it. Sit down with for him for a few weeks. You can see where he's having trouble. Is the reading part? comprehension? Once he's sees that it's not going to take him hours to finish, he might be motivated to get started by himself.

I have a 2nd grader and I sit down with her to get her started. She knows what to do but is easily distracted. If I don't keep an eye, a 20 minute homework turns into hours.