We've been HSing our 7-year old for a while now. We've found doing work, then giving her a break is NOT working! For her break she'll drag out toys and then when the break is over, she doesn't want to go back and do work and it takes us a while to get her to concentrate again. We've tried supervised breaks where we direct the activity such as doing some tumbling skills or martial arts. Same thing, she doesn't want to sit back down and concentrate. We've tried art breaks, and same thing. After the art project is done she doesn't want to do "dull" work. We usually leave the art until last. If we just push her through her 1 to 2 hours of work she makes it through OK. We've also tried doing fun lessons but as soon as you make it "fun" she goofs off. She'll stop trying alltogether and make mistakes on purpose or just laugh and act like a clown. Any of you have this problem?
I give breaks. And I break up the work so as not to be monotonous to her. If she has a lot of reading in one subject then the next thing we do is something that does not require a lot of reading, like math. And then every so often I give her a break. Usually she and her sister just go outside and play tag or something. If I don't give her breaks she gets worn out.
I haven't had it with my child but more when I was teaching. If it works better to do a long stretch of seat work, then do that first. After that is done, move on to other more active things.
We do our core subjects in the morning--- math, grammar, spelling--- and then break for lunch. They can watch cartoons during the hour lunch break [or sometimes I put in the Electric Company DVDs]. Then, we finish with our lighter subjects [these are light for now due to their being 6 & 7]: Bible, history, science, and reading. After we're all done with that, then they can have the rest of the time to play.
I don't do a break with our 7 year old. We go straight through. If she needs a mental break, I let her go jump on the bed 20 times. Then she comes back and we get right back to work.
Jacob is up at 7, eats, starts school at 8-12 then takes an lunch, starts work back by 1 and finishes between 2-3
When we take breaks it is for a snack or for lunch then we get back on track and go back to our homeschooling.
We take some breaks. Usually when we start, I do a bulk of the things we can do together, then we'll take a 5 minute break, then it's the subjects they can't do together so we rotate. Then after lunch we finish off our together (science/history, p.e. etc). However, what works for one doesn't work for all. Have you tried no breaks? Maybe your dd would do better to do it in one sitting. Perhaps you could try that one day and see if it makes a difference.
I say, just do whatever works for you. For us, we do take a serious break after about an hour and a half, or two if we just have a lot on our plate that day. But, our break is not free time. My kids are told what the activity is - usually bikes in the driveway for 20-30 minutes. Then a snack they have usually while I'm reading to them. Then we just work till we're finished. I don't like taking a break with free time or for a full meal because we never make it back on task.
I learned, earlier this week, than a new thing (New to us) seems to keep my kids focused. It is a combination of a couple of techniques... #1 We have a timer, we set a time to complete each subject. (We mainly only time the time they spend on SEAT WORK.) What does not get done in that amount of time, is closed up and set aside. #2 We get up, between EACH subject to get a drink, potty, change a load of laundry, empty the trash, you name it. We do not sit down to play. #3 We get back to the next subject and again, any seatwork or work they do on their own, the timer gets set. #4 At the end of the "School Time", they can do as they please. However, nothing electronic and no outside playing until the finish their "Homework", ie: The stuff they did not finish in time. (Because I am evil!) Now... Day one of emplimenting this, I set the timer for just under what I thought they could finish... ie: I made sure there was NOT enough tim eto finish math, but ALMOST.... Etc with reading and so on... This actually kept things going quickly and made the day seem to go faster. It planted in their heads that time moves fast and they need to focus to get the job done... It also MORE IMPORTANTLY made sure there was some "Homework" at the end of that first day.... so that they would know what it felt like when mom enforced the "No play til homework is done" rule. They actually LIKED IT! No chaos.... Pretty bad when your kid ASKS for structure, eh? Anyway... this is what is working for us, right now... Basically we can work from 8am - 12 noon and be DONE. And with the timers, they are concentrating on getting the job done, so that classwork does not eat into their PLAY time... And meanwhile the clothes get washed and the dishwasher gets emptied, because we are doing SMALL single chores between classes...
i like the pp, jens, idea. if she needs a break from mental work, ok. then we do a chore, maybe leave a chore from the night before like toy pickup, or make it something like make your bed, put her laundry away, or sweep the kitchen, something that will let her get moving, but not be so fun that she doesn't want a break from the "chore" and might actually look forward to going back to the school work. I don't know, we usually dont break with my 6 yr old, but his work only takes us 30min tops for K, and my 8 yr old 2nd grade only takes 1 1/2 tops, unless she is piddling. The only breaks we take are for baby interruptions, or phone occasionally, but most of the time i save independent time for last, so i know i am done with my lessons already and if i have to interrupt, they have something they can do on their own, like writing, or math review. Good luck, sometimes it just takes a trial and error approach to find the right timing to things.
That is soooo true! Then again, once you discover what works for you... your kids decide to change... hahaha! :wink:
we live across the street from a school so we always had recess at that age when the school bells rang then as they rang again they camein or back to work, this made it work for us, cause I couldset up the next class. But I would work it through if they are working hard at it. if your child is working well with a straight through Id go with it. I would think it would take more than 2 hours though?
I now give breaks. But math has to be done first thing. I'll add in Language arts right after that. After the holidays - those are the main 2 subjects they will NOT be working together on at this point. I try 30 minute breaks do help - especially with other stuff I need to get done - including house-keeping
Jen, you may be "evil" but I like your style! I will have to try the homework thing! And the chores between subjects...that's just sweet! Gonna rip you off big time here! As far as our breaks currently, I do say that if they give a fit or protest about not stopping whatever they're playing when I say that it's time for them to get back to work, then they'll not be able to do that during free time next time. But...I'm seriously going to try the housework thing!!!!
I let Madison know what our goals are for the week on mondays..if she doesnt argue or drag it out we can be done with school by 1pm, 12 if she's really good..then the rest of the day is her's/mine to do as we please. I also told her at the beginning of this school year she had more responsiblity as a 2nd grader also and I wasnt putting up with the fights or "sit outs" on the stairs if she starts protesting..haha! She agreed that she was "beyond" that and things move along pretty good. I do give her breaks as I need them also but anything left over after 12-1pm is to be done before bedtime..and it is(on days we are home that is).
Nope, no breaks. And I deliberately save down time subjects, like reading or watching history dvd's, for last. He likes to lay down on the couch and read which makes it hard to get back up and switch gears.
What we do... I let my kids break between each subject for about 10 minutes. Lunch is one hour...or so, because I need a break too!
