Question:
All my kids do is complain, whine, and try to get out of school work. Any advice?
Answer:
Your job is to find the best resources and methods to teach the information in a fun and interesting way that captivates their interest. Are you doing your job?
Your children’s job is to obey you, be grateful for your efforts, have a good attitude and do their work without whining. Are they doing their job?
If homeschool is dreary, or you are pre-occupied, doing other things, planning dental appointments, talking with neighbors, and not focusing on being present and fun during homeschool time, then your kids might have a reason to complain. There are lots of resources to help you make school more fun and interesting. If you get involved, you will really enjoy being with them and learning together!
If you are doing your part to make homeschool fun and interesting, then the problem generally lies with the children. Have they been allowed to complain in general in life? Such as, “I don’t like this food, “You’re always late”, etc. That attitude can carry over into homeschooling time and make everyone miserable.
We all struggle to teach our children to obey! It is one of those most difficult tasks of life—“Thy will, not my will.” Usually, disobedience is at the root of a bad attitude. I have discovered that my children yearn to be challenged and enjoy learning new things, even though they would lead me to believe that “it’s too hard.” Complaining and noncompliant behavior must never pay off. I make sure that it is totally unproductive to whine and complain. “I hate math, I don’t want to do this!” is met with an additional page of math facts to complete. It only takes a few extra assignments to convince a child that it isn’t worth complaining. Doing dishes works well to stop complaining too.
I make sure that my children know they can appeal to me, meaning that they can come to me privately and tell me how they honestly feel. If the math is too hard or boring, then I do all I can to remedy it. But generally, complaining and whining is just a protest that really means, “I don’t want to try. I just want to do what I want to do and I want it to be easy.” This “my will” attitude only leads to trouble.
Make it very worthwhile not to complain! Make sure no whining ever pays off or gets rewarded with attention (negative attention is still attention). Gift those who don’t whine with some sought-after benefit for holding their tongue. They will learn. Be persistent—kids learn fast if mother sticks with it. School is going to get a lot better!
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