When I first heard about the idea of short lessons increasing a child’s ability to stay focused, I thought the idea seemed counter intuitive.

Sure, short lessons would be my child’s desire, but how can I expect him to pay attention in a 3 hour college class someday when I’ve brought him up on 15 minute lessons?! On the other hand, you might be thinking that 15 minutes is seriously stretching your child’s attention span!

Here’s the Idea
If I tell you to do 90 minutes of laundry you might give up before you get started, but if I tell you to set your timer and fold clothes for 15 minutes only, you might be surprised at how much you can get done. If throughout the day you continue to do only 15 minutes of laundry at a time, you will get it done faster, with less stress.

If we apply ourself for 15 minutes to a task, we can accomplish a lot and do it well, without tiring our brain. You can do anything for 15 minutes! And each time you spend that 15 minutes diligently working on the task, you are training your brain to focus.

So how does that translate into completed schoolwork?

Make it Do-able
Don’t give your child more than they can do well in 15 minutes. Your child might be young, or have very little ability to concentrate, in which case you might need to start with a shorter amount of time. You don’t want to set them up for failure, but you also don’t want to make it too easy. It should be just enough that if they concentrate diligently for this short time, they will be able to accomplish the task, and do it well.

And if they don’t finish
Once you set your child to work, they may zone out and not complete the work assigned. When the time is passed, tell your child that it’s time to move onto another subject, and they will have an opportunity to finish later. Do a few other things with the child, then go back to the uncompleted task. Again allow the child 15 minutes to work on it. You might have to go on like this for some time, but don’t let the day go by without completing the task. In time the child will learn that concentrating for that 15 minutes will get the work done, and they won’t have to go back to it later.

And if They Finish Faster
If they complete the task faster, they should be allowed some free time as a natural positive consequent of their diligent work. They should not get the “natural consequence” of being given even more work. 😉

What if You Just CAN’T?
There are a few subject which you cannot feasibly get done in 15 minutes. Math for older child is one of them. Regardless, I still break it up into 15 minute segments. We might spend 15 minutes working together on the day’s lesson. Then, later they may spend 15 minutes on a worksheet that corresponds to what they learned. Later still we might play a math game.

Sometimes you will run into a situation where the lesson is just not clicking in their mind, and everyone is getting frustrated. This is an even better reason to stop after 15 minutes. Let their mind rest, and when you go back to it, you just might find things come together much more easily.

You Can Do Anything for 15 Minutes
A great benefit of short lessons is that you will not exhaust your child’s brain. I make a conscious effort to change from one type of lesson to another. For instance,

I read the Bible to them,
then they read aloud a narration they’ve written,
then we work on Math,
then I read to them again,
then they work on handwriting,
then we do a picture study or sing a hymn,
then I read again,
and it continues on this way.

You get the idea. I am always switching things out, using their brains in different ways every 15 minutes. I find we can blow through a 4 hour school day, accomplishing 10 – 14 subjects, and no one feels pained! Furthermore, their brains are not worn out, so each lesson is assimilated better in those 15 minutes, than an hour of wading through it.

Transition Time
It will take a little time to fine tune the transition from one subject to the next. To start with you might want to jot yourself down a little note of the order of subjects. Then when you finish one subject you will know what to do next. Or, you could have a stack of books you would like to read that day, and just know that you will read one for 15 minutes, then do something that is not-reading.

Thus, the ground work for the habit of concentration is established. Essentially, they are practicing concentrating, and over time, that practice will improve the skill. It takes some dedication at first, to stick to it day after day, but in time it will be a habit.