5 Ways to Help Your Student Master Chemistry Homework
5 Ways to Get Your Child Interested in Chemistry Homework
No matter how long ago you graduated, you must remember that feeling of sheer despair while trying hard to understand something in the Science class but that something is just not getting through. After some time, that feeling grows into irritability to the point you just can’t be bothered with it, so you learn things by heart just so you could pass, and the moment you are out of the exam, your memory is blank.
Since we have all been there, from a more mature point and with the experience we accumulated, we can now try to help our offspring develop a genuine interest in chemistry and consequently, have no problem dealing with their homework and tests.
Don’t exert too much pressure
Nobody enjoys being pressured into something and children tend to resent it even more than adults. It is perfectly normal not to enjoy something if you don’t understand it so pushing your child to go over each lesson after school with you will make the situation even more frustrating. Instead, try to engage them in another, more practical, manner, so for instance, make them interested in the manner in which the plants breathe or the reason why seasons change.
Talk about its usage outside school
Learning solely from theory about something abstract can be quite dry and difficult for children to comprehend. What you need to do is show that chemistry isn’t just a school subject, that it has an application outside of the classroom. Tell them about water, a liquid that takes a shape of any vessel it gets poured in, but turns solid once you freeze it. If you get them hooked about thinking on everyday natural processes around them, that curiosity will, in time, influence them perceiving homework as a fun quiz.
Provide them with adequate tools
If you don’t have the time to regularly study with your child, you can enlist a tutor. Ideally, that tutor is involved into awaking passion for chemistry in your child. Tutors work very effectively online, and they add what a parent or even teacher often doesn’t. You or a tutor can give your child control over the study process by showing apps for studying chemistry. Since kids love apps, they will learn without noticing it because they will have fun. The periodic table, the difference between anions (not onions) and cations (not vacations), are available online, and it’s easier than poring through a thick textbook.
Insist on understanding, not grades
Grades are important in the sense of them being taken into consideration when applying for college, but let’s face it, there are a number of things from different subjects you forgot even though you had an excellent grade. So, you need to teach your child how to learn in order to understand and not just to get a good mark. What would be good is to consolidate the information which will be useful in life, and based on the regular homework, add some quizzes you find online. By making it into a competition with a small reward, you will motivate them and avoid putting pressure on them.
Perform experiments at home
Who says chemistry can’t be fun? Since children spend a lot of time on social media, what you can do is make a Facebook event and invite your child to attend the Experiment Day at home. The internet is full of DIY chemistry projects which could be appealing, from creating bath bombs to the ever-interesting slime and baking soda volcano. However, it would be best to find a way to connect the experiment to the homework and what they did at school, so they can associate that theory from school, with the practical part they are trying out at home. For everything to go smoothly and so that you can give your children a task instead of having them observe, it is best to first try all the experiments on your own.
Conclusion
If your children roll their eyes at the sight of chemistry homework, there is no reason to get angry at them. Instead, you need to find a manner in which you can help. Whether you will do it personally or with a help of an app, it is best you first get them interested in chemistry in the practical sense, by asking questions about things that surround them and by experimenting at home. Only after they get hooked, comes the perfect time to connect that knowledge with school lessons. With time and effort, their love for chemistry will grow and doing chemistry homework will not be a nuisance anymore.