Is Doodling During Homework A Waste Of Time? What I Learned As A Mom And Teacher
Last Tuesday, I was folding clean laundry outside my 10-year-old’s bedroom, pausing before checking in on his nightly math homework. When he didn’t answer, I pushed the door open an inch, and there he was: worksheet propped open to multi-digit multiplication, half the problems blank, the entire front and back margin covered in tiny, intricately drawn dragons lined up for battle against a giant squid. His pencil was moving so fast it blurred, and he didn’t even notice me standing there for a full 10 seconds. That old question popped right into my head, the same one I ask at least once a week: Is this a waste of time?
He jumped when I cleared my throat, and quickly tried to flip the worksheet over like he’d been caught doing something wrong. “I’m almost done,” he said, voice defensive. “The dragons just… keep me company.” I remembered my first semester working as a 4th grade aide, 12 years ago, when the lead teacher I trained under made every kid cover their workbook margins with packing tape to stop exactly this. She called doodling “a distraction that takes time away from learning.” I almost repeated that line right back to my son that night.
But two weeks before that homework moment, I’d watched something that made me question that old rule. One of my current students, Leo, is the kid who draws on everything: his jeans, the back of his hand, every single worksheet he touches. His teacher had been talking about referring him for extra support because he never seemed to pay attention during whole group instruction. Then we graded our practice state math test, and Leo had the highest score in the entire 4th grade. After class, I asked him how he did it, when he’s always drawing. He shrugged and said, “If my hand’s busy drawing, my brain doesn’t wander off to the basketball game after school. If I have to sit still and just listen, I start thinking about everything else.”
I went home that night and did a quick check of what research actually says, not just what we’ve always assumed. Turns out, for a lot of kids, fidgeting or doodling keeps the easily bored part of the brain occupied, so the rest of the brain can focus on hard work. It’s not that they’re not paying attention—it’s that they need something extra to keep the distracted part busy.
I decided to test it out, first with my son, then with the kids in my class. Instead of telling my son no doodles during homework, I gave him a clear, simple rule: you can doodle as much as you want, but it has to stay on the back of the worksheet, and you have to finish all assigned problems before you can spend the whole time drawing. That first week, what happened surprised me. He finished his homework an average of 8 minutes faster every night, and his error rate went down by half. He told me before, when he tried not to doodle, he’d get up three times to get a drink or a snack because he was restless. Now he stays seated.
In my class, I made the same rule with the three chronic doodlers: doodle on the back, not over your notes, and you have to answer a question if I call on you to prove you’re listening. In the three weeks since we made that change, two of the three have raised their hands to volunteer answers more than they did all semester before. One of them told me he used to spend half his time hiding his drawings from the teacher, so he missed what was being said. Now he doesn’t have to hide, so he can listen.
Doodling isn’t the only thing we write off as a waste of time, either. Last Saturday, I walked out to the front porch to remind my son he needed to practice piano for his upcoming recital, and found him just sitting on the steps, staring at the oak tree in the front yard. He’d been there 20 minutes, according to my husband, just watching. I was already opening my mouth to ask if that was really a good use of time, when he waved me over. He pointed to a scruffy squirrel with a torn ear running up the trunk. “That’s Stumpy,” he said. “I’ve been watching him for a week. I’m figuring out where to put my feeder for the science fair project I’m doing on squirrel nests.” That 20 minutes of staring wasn’t wasting time—it was brainstorming. He’d already read all the articles in his textbook, he just needed time to let it sit and turn into a plan.
I’ve started doing this little thing now, whenever I’m about to call something a waste of time. I pause for 60 seconds, and walk through three quick checks before I say anything. First: Is this actually hurting anyone or keeping them from getting something done? If my son is doodling over his math problems so I can’t read his answers, that’s a problem, and I step in. If it’s just in the margins, it’s not. Second: Ask them what they’re doing, don’t assume. Nine times out of 10, they’ll tell you exactly why it’s helping them focus or work through something. Third: If it’s not hurting anything, leave it alone. You don’t have to fill every minute of their day with scheduled, productive activity.
I still mess this up, of course. Last night I caught him scrolling through 15 minutes of TikTok with stupid 10-second cat memes after he finished homework, and I still felt that little twinge that it’s a waste. But then he came downstairs 10 minutes later with a full sketch for a comic strip about a cat that thinks it’s a dragon, directly inspired by the memes and his margin dragons, and he entered it into our local library’s kid comic contest this week. It might not win. Some of the time, what looks like a waste really is just that. But more often than not, that thing that looks like nothing is actually how their brain works. I’m still learning to step back and let it happen.
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