Do I Fail him?
Posted: Sun Nov 07, 2010 8:38 pm
3-4 hours a day of concentrated work is actually quite a lot, if you're working the whole time. Studies have shown that unless you enjoy what you're working on, attention starts to wane after the first half hour or so, especially with boys. Do you allow him to take a short break between subjects? Also, is he rewarded in some way for good performance? If he has an allowance, for instance (as opposed to payment for doing certain chores), you could tie the allowance to how well he does in his studies. If he does really well in everything, he gets a bonus; if he drags his feet, he gets a mediocre amount. Above all, there needs to be a fixed reward / penalty structure that he knows about in advance and that you can apply without constantly pulling him over for talks. If he's being obstinate, all the talks will do is make it worse - I know this from personal experience (having been that person occasionally myself)
You haven't said anything about the subject matter or study method you're using for science, but I imagine it doesn't involve a huge amount of lab or hands-on work outdoors. Might help to spice things up a bit, even if the curriculum is all online or something and doesn't require it.
Certainly not saying it's all your fault, mind you, just that there may be alternate ways to handle things so he'll want to study more.