I volunteer at an afterschool program where I assist children with their homework.  On my first day, I was assisting a second grader with his multiplication assignment.  He had not memorized his times table and was not allowed to use a calculator.  After he saw the assignment, he reached for his calculator and I reminded him that he couldn’t use it for this assignment.  He turned to me and replied, “I’ll finish this later,” and he ran off to play with a lego set.  I followed him and politely insisted that he should return to his assignment but he continued playing as if he didn’t  hear me.   

I empathized with the young boy.  Solving ‘8 x 7’ does not seem very exciting to a child.  Every time he saw the problem I would have to stop him from using his calculator and explain to him why he could not use it.  I have always felt the long-term benefits of an education are too difficult for most children to understand.  Until a child becomes interested enough to want to learn, parents, teachers, and even volunteers should strive to make learning enjoyable.  On my first day of volunteering, I realized that completing my objectives would require some ingenuity and creativity.  

I needed to capture the child’s interest to get him to learn.  With this in mind, I printed out images of different Pokemon on the classroom’s computer and devised a quick learning game.  I approached the child and asked if he wanted to play a Pokemon game with me.  He excitedly agreed and I told him the way to win the game was by using your Pokemon’s strongest attack.  Each attack move had a different multiplication problem tied to it that the child had to solve to uncover the damage it could inflict on an opponent.  My plan successfully motivated the child to solve his math problems.  The next day, however, I found the game’s novelty diminished along with the child’s interest in it.  Ah, well!  On to the next plan.