It helps when children have a dedicated space for their schoolwork. This doesn’t have to cost a bomb. It can be simple. What is important is that the space is kept clean and uncluttered. All they need is a desk and a small shelve or drawer to keep their books and stationery. Children should be taught to clean up their work desk at the end of each work session. It is a simple but important habit to inculcate.

It should be in a quiet part of the house, with minimal distractions. It also helps if the place is well lit and not too warm.

Some children decorate the walls of their study area with their schoolwork, including pictures they may have drawn. This is good as it adds to their sense of pride in their work.

Interestingly, some children may work better out of the house. Sometimes the home is just too relaxing, with the inviting bed nearby, or it can be too distracting with the TV, computer and toys close at hand. I know some parents who have their children do their homework in the library, or even in the office.

• Encik Azman, a father of an 11 year old son, found that his son was not able to work productively at home and so decided to have him complete his homework in his office.

“After school each day, I fetch my son and he spends the afternoon with me at the office completing his homework. I think being here at my office, seeing his father working hard and everyone in the office working hard motivates him to work hard as well.”

It’s important to choose a time when the child is most alert and ready to absorb information.

Most children are the most alert in the morning from about 9:00am to 11:00am, in the late afternoon after 5:00pm and at night. Conversely most children are at their drowsiest in the afternoon just after lunch.

Of course, each individual child have unique rhythms and parents should be observant about when your child is most awake and active. Parents can encourage their children to try doing their work at different times of the day, until they find the me which is optimal.

Many parents that I talk to share about the struggles they face in getting their children to complete their homework due to their children’s limited attention spans. I want to say from the beginning that it is normal for young children to have limited attention spans.

Most young children, by nature, are extremely energetic and active, always on the lookout out for new and exciting experiences. These high levels of energy are a good thing, as they enable learning, but they can also mean that the child may get bored quickly if a learning activity is not engaging or interesting.

That is why, it is healthy to make homework time short and sweet, especially for younger children.

For children below 5 years old, each session should not last more than 30 minutes and for children who are 5-6 yrs old, it should not last more than 40 minutes.

However, I agree that we can and should train our young children to gradually extend their attention spans.

Parents should never spoon-feed your child answers to their homework. Sometimes in our desire to ensure that everything is perfect, we tell our child how to do their work, forgetting that the process of searching for the answers is what makes the work valuable as a learning activity.

What we can do is to bring to life their work, especially when they find it boring. The best way to get children interested is to make them active learners rather than passive learners.

A child should learn by doing (active learning), rather than just by listening (passive learning). Bookshops have excellent learning activity books that parents can use for their home lessons. These books are divided into individual sessions and each session comprises of many learning activities from writing to coloring to story telling and even acting.

When learning becomes active and fun, children will be more likely to engage with their homework.

There needs to be a balance in a child’s day. A time to work and a time to play. I encourage parents to allow children enough free time once they have finished their homework. In other words, homework should not be the last thing a child does in a day.

They should be given some free time to relax, to play, to rest. This provides some motivation for the child to complete their work. It gives them something to look forward to.