DO YOU HATE HOMEWORK AS AN ADULT?
So, is homework overrated?
Do we really have to do it?
Can we make it mean something completely and unexpectedly different?
In French, devoir means to have to (must) as well as homework. What an appropriate coincidence!
Here’s an idea, that my friend Dawn dedicated her life to: when you and your kid take a course together, your kid gets to help mom or dad with homework.
It’s kind of a flip from the usual roles and gives your bundle of joy a sense of competence.
This applies very well to learning French too.
And of course, what’s better than a teenager to challenge you with a new homework for life? 🙂
Watch the video below to find out how to say “I have to” in every which way, and read the great post below, to find out how to connect with your teen, while doing your French homework.
(This week: the verb DEVOIR – to think)
“Create Connection Through Learning”
is a guest post by Dawn Lyons.
How do we connect with our teens by taking a French course together and letting them check our homework for a change. I would like to thank Dawn for graciously accepting to post on my blog!
I can’t help but smile when I speak to parents who say they “just don’t know how” to connect with their teenager because, more often than not, their teenager will tell me, “I can’t connect with my parents. They just don’t get it.”
There they are, both saying the same thing, but thinking they aren’t able to connect with each other.
When this happens,
there are a variety of things that can be done to either create connection or to create opportunities for connection to be made.
What I often recommend is that the parent and teen take some type of course or class together.
There are endless options that can be chosen to fit the interest of both the teenager and their parent(s), so that each party will be committed to attending and following through with any required ‘homework’ or practice.
This process of connection through learning achieves a variety of positive results.
Both individuals learn a new skill and improve themselves on an individual level, and also connect both through the subject being learned and simply because the opportunity for togetherness is created.
Communication improves
by spending that extra time in each other’s company, by discussing the skills being learned and helping one another through trouble spots.
It also creates accountability and a bit of an extra push to do well – and sometimes even a healthy dose of competition!
Whether it’s an art course, a writing workshop, a fitness class, language lessons or something else that piques the interest of all parties, investing in a learning experience is something that can effectively create (or revive) the valuable – and needed – connection between teenagers and their parents.
An editor, writer and success advisor for teens, Dawn Lyons is the owner of Lines by Lyons and founder of Teen Life Stories. Her writing and story-creating background and experiences with teenagers led her to create support processes that empower teens to live and create their individual life stories with enjoyment, ease, confidence and purpose.
NOW IT IS YOUR TURN!
Tell us in the comments below: what strategies do you use to connect with your kid?
Let me guess.
Do you constantly have the feeling that you can’t hear what the French say and you don’t know how to read all the French words because they are written so much differently than they sound?
Learn 3 secrets that will help you be self sufficient in the way you pronounce French words – even if you don’t know what they mean – so that you can read that sophisticated menu in your favorite French restaurant.
Immerse yourself as you FINALLY reach your dream of becoming bilingual, learn to speak Parisian French on Skype and BREAK your language barrier!
…and now, please SHARE this article with your friends. They’ll love you for it! : )
Always in your corner,
Llyane
Photo credit: A.G. photographe, sharonsantoni.com
