Oy

[yendi]

I just checked Elayna's math homework. She got 13/30 problems wrong. There are 1x2 digit problems (3x86, for example). It would be one thing if this was too hard for her. But almost all of her mistakes are careless. She's either forgetting to carry the tens digit, or just plain making a careless addition mistake. The problem isn't that she doesn't know it; it's that she's overconfident and sloppy. When I told her how many she got wrong, she told me, "At least it wasn't that many." I explained that this would be a failing grade, which shocked her.

Anyone know how to motivate an incredibly smart but also not very careful child?

Edit: Upon redoing the ones I circled, she still had six wrong. Again, all sloppy. She's got another one of these assignments on Wednesday. We'll see if she puts in a better effort then.

Comments

[atrophying]

My parents/teachers used to bribe me with non-tangible things. Seriously. Additional computer time, additional books from the library, that kind of thing. I've also seen minimum time limits recommended, which works well (my parents had a span of time set aside every day, and if I didn't have enough homework to fill that time, then they had educational video games and the like to fill that time).

The biggest thing that helps, though, is to understand *why* Elayna is making these mistakes. Does she view it as busywork? Does she have something else that she wants to be doing? Does she want to move onto another concept in that class, and is frustrated that she can't? If you know exactly why she's making these errors, then it's a lot easier to find the proper motivation.

[yendi]

We do some bribing for her reading (every half hour of reading earns her more tv time). I suspect that of the possible motivations you cite, wanting to finish it so she can do fun stuff is her big motivation.