For those of you who don't know, I have an almost-7-yr-old son that we've been HS-ing for 3 years now - the last 2 "officially." He is in 1st gr according to his b-day, but he's in 2nd grade work-wise. We have been schooling this year for almost 2 weeks. The first day was fine, the second not as fine, and since then he's been a nightmare to deal with. He is an absolute class clown, with no classmates. He acts like he's 3 again, making noises, singing repetitive songs in weird voices, bouncing around, not paying attention for more than a few minutes at a time.... just really getting on my nerves in a major way. I've taken all tv and gaming time away for the last 4 days, with no real difference. I've always known he is a bit hyper (gets that from dear ol' dad!), but we've always been able to deal with it by doing lots of hands-on activities. In spite of that, though, today I just quit school after almost 4 hrs of fighting him through math and SS. And when I get on to him (by yelling mostly, today) he just pretends to be scared by sliding back in his seat and getting this look on his face. Then he starts giggling. WTH!?! I swear if someone told me right now that I would have 2 days of this every week, I'd have him PS so fast it'd make his head spin. I just really need some advice, support, whatever you can offer. I don't know how I'll muster the energy or patience to try this again tomorrow, but I don't want him to think that by acting out he gets out of school work. :evil:
(((hugs))) Some days are better than others, but when the tough days run together.... I understand totally! When ds gets bouncy I make his stand to do his work, no chair or squatting or leaning on the table. If he wants to sign-song he does his work out loud. If he gets really bad he is sent to the trampoline and can't come back in until I'm ready and he'll do his work. Just some thoughts! Marty
Has Dad intervened at all? Will he listen more to his father than you when it comes to discipline? If so, get Dad to have a stern talk with him and also set down some consequences if he doesn't straighten up. A rewards/consequences system that he can see might help some. Using the white board more might help as well. Have him run around the house 'x' number of times every morning before you even start. Push-ups and sit-ups can help. Is he in any sports activities? You might look at martial arts if he isn't. They work a lot on self-control. Our university gives parents and grandparents the right to strip a student of his/her belt if they're being disrespectful. Then, they have to go to class as a no-belt and be last in line in ranking. They have to earn the belt back through their behavior. It helps my kids a lot. As a different tack, you might also look into L-Theanine as a supplement to his diet. It's an amino acid found in green tea. It's supposed to relax you, but it's often recommended for kids with ADD and ADHD as it calms their minds and helps them focus. I've been using a drink with my daughter [who has a tremendous lack of focus--- not to the degree of ADD but enough to make her difficult] that has L-Theanine in it while we wait on an order of capsules to come in. She drank about 16 oz of the drink yesterday before going to her karate class. Both my husband and one of her instructors commented that she was much more focused in class; usually, she's a space cadet and wiggles a lot. It's always worth researching and giving a try as a help.
Take a break by going on a field trip. Have him verbalize what he has learned from the trip. For instance, take him to the zoo and ask him questions while watching the animals. He will be learning while having fun. Possible questions to ask while watching the animals: A Fun Day at the Zoo http://www.findmeahobby.com/pages/Fun_Day_at_the_Zoo.php Quote: "For a school-aged child, the questions should of course be a little more challenging. Talk about where the animal originally came from. You can leave it at the continent, or look at the exhibit signs to figure out what country exactly they came from and then ask your child what continent that country is in, what the climate is like and also how this particular animal has adapted to the climate. For example, a polar bear's coat is white so he blends in with all the snow and ice. You can also talk about the animal’s particular habitat and how it was recreated in the zoo. You can look at the chimpanzee exhibit with your child and compare it to the forests in Africa that they originally came from. Did the zoo provide plenty of opportunities for the chimpanzees to climb? Don't forget to talk about the classification of the animals as well. You can ask a younger child whether a particular animal is a fish, a bird or a mammal and go into a little more detail with an older child. You'll be surprised how much they have picked up in science class in school and will be more than happy to share with you."
DS is 6 and in first grade. Things are goin ok now but we have had days where I wanted to choke him. Hope that doesn't offend any one One day he was telling me how he wanted school to be funner and asked me to find ways to make it fun for him. I ask what sort of things he thought we should do. I had done all of the yelling and go to your room stuff and it didn't help. Once we actually sat and discussed it without the tears and I talked to him like an adult things got better. I know this won't work for everyone but I tried the hard*&^ approach and it made things worse.
Have you tried being a coach and making him run laps? Ok, maybe not literally, but I talked to someone recently who said her son has to ride his bike before starting school just to run off some energy. It really helps them a lot.
I was also going to suggest having him exercise before school. Let him ride his bike or do something that drains some energy. Have him do his school work in the dirt, on a whiteboard, on the driveway with sidewalk chalk. After a while, he probably gets tired of looking at a book. When Ems was younger, I would take her math problems, write them on the driveway and Ems would answer them on the driveway. It was fun and she got to be outdoors and not have her nose in a book for all subjects. If he is reading, have him walk while he reads or sit on a ball. This way he can sway back and forth but still read. I went to see a guest speaker who homeschooled her children. She was a public school teacher and said she would make her children sit still. But her boy didn't learn this way. So after doing some research, she bought him one of those exercise balls to sit on and this allowed him to sway back and forth but focus on his reading at the same time. If he likes to make weird voices, let him recite his spelling words or something else in weird voices. Put those weird noises to use. LOL :lol:
When my children were younger and squirmy or whatever they had extra chores to do with the farm or whatever to work it off. Then they were more ready to just sit With kids as young as your son I would take a lot of breaks and have him exercise and work off some energy
oka a friend of mine said her sons teacher makes boys hsi age sit on excersise balls to do their school work then they can bounce and giggle a litle here and there as long as they do their work. They also slow down a bit as they are focusing on staying on the ball well enough to do the work as well cause they have to do the work to sit on the ball.. this worked for her ds! I tried it with my over active at times child.. I call it the dobs-- disobedient boy syndrom or the dis obedient sleepy boy syndrom to be more correct! My son gets into either goofy moods or frustrations , mostly I realise when he is not getting enough sleep. He loves to read, draw or play during sleep time.. it has gotten better as he got older its mostly books now that keep him awake. If he does not get enough sleep he is a brat, plain and simple. Btw my lable of him is not meant to offend anyone its just my joke with him when he gets all uptight and dis obeys me. We used a play on the words and when I tell him that I think he has that, now he calms and does his work.. Make up yoru own catch word to calm him down, mine may not be so cool... I also have had him get up and run laps of the back yard garden. Ten laps ( its small ) and he comes in gets a drink of water, uses restroom if he needs it an comes "back to class" Usually a slight distraction from hsi behavior works better than yelling at him, no matter how much I get frustrated with him. if you watch him enough you can see when he is starting to loose it, that would be when you say " wow I need a break! Lets run laps, or do jumping jacks or take a walk around the block" someting like that and then come back make a routine out of getting a drink of water using the rest room and sitting back down calmer. focus, remind him what he is doing in his work as if he wont already know. But encourage him that he remembers it. Hope this helps!
My 7 y/o son does best when I let him do a physical thing between each subject. Especially if it's all seat worky type of day. Jumping jacks, push up, run around the back yard a few times (weather permitting), running in place, etc. Or we play a game of Simon says or something where he gets to be in charge. Ya know...his sister gets her work done a lot faster, but he doesn't seem to care because he gets to "play" LOL Don't get me wrong, he has his days where he's just frustrating as all get out. He is, after all, a boy. Hope tomorrow is better. (((HUGS)))
You all have such great advice!!! I have one of those exercise balls that he plays with all the time outside of school time.... I think I'll break it out tomorrow! And of course we need to go outside and do some physical activity before and between lessons... why didn't I think of that!?! Thank you all so very much!! I'm actually not dreading tomorrow nearly as much! Hopefully he'll feel better about it, too, once he sees what fun stuff he'll get to do. Oh, and he is definitely one of those that gets wired when he's tired, too. His grandma used to say, "But he's not sleepy at all!" whenever I'd get on to her for letting him stay up until 11:30 at night, then the next day he'd be an out of control little boy. I think I am also going to do one of those card things where he gets a card taken away each time I have to really get on to him, and if he loses all three he'll have to do an extra chore that week; and if he doesn't lose any, then each day he'll earn a star that can be added up to an extra hour of tv/game time that week. Maybe between all of those things we'll get to a place where learning can actually happen without the constant yelling, aggravation and tears (of course those are just MY reactions! LOL). Thank you, thank you, thank you again for all the help!! I'll let you know how the next couple of weeks go with the new ideas!
okay, I am really mean but I have given my ds an extra page in math before when he fussed around or was disrespectful to me about his math work.. and given him a page of writting for writting practice arguing... those were straw that broke the back days but like I said he is improving as I keep following my plans.. if we get over loades with stuff and stay out too late, then we have to start all over again.. he at least knows now at just 12 that he is starting school on the 8th and we changed his bed time to suit his age a little more and will see how it goes, he knows he has to go earlier if it does not work once sister starts up at school this year.. Monday I teach Drama and tutor during our school time so he is in the drama class but will be my main focus in the tutor session as its MUS and I just sit and go over the stuff Mr Deme said with them and have them do thier lessons.
I had a boy like that. The exercise stuff is what helped him the most. I also let him walk around and say his spelling words out loud, or do narrations/summaries out loud instead of writing them. We often used white boards for Math and English. For two years I kept a stricter schedule, my kids were at an age where that seemed to help the most. I'd get them up right before daddy left for work. We'd have family prayer time, then daddy would leave. Right after he left we'd have exercise time outside as much as possible, even on cold days. During the day if I noticed his energy building, I'd do like TMom said and say, "Boy, I sure do need some exercise to get my blood flowing, lets go run around the house 3 times, or lets do 50 jumping jacks.... One thing I have to disagree with, though, is giving extra schoolwork as a punishment. My goal is to help them get through their job of schooling, making it as interesting and fun as possible. You can't make everything FUN! Sometimes they just have to get it done. But by punishing them with schoolwork, it puts a bad taste in their mouth about doing the work. I always used some privilege and took it away instead. I wanted them to see schoolwork as a separate thing, and I wanted them to want to get it done. If I bang them over the head with it, then they certainly won't like it next time it comes around, and are less likely to have a good attitude about it! That's just me, though. Maybe it's different for others. Best wishes to you! These times are hard, but if you stick it out, later on down the road you'll be very happy with the results!
yep been there done that one too. My youngest dd was that way, we jumped out math problems like 4 x 4 is what, she jump the answer out. We climb the stairs to spell our words. Yea sometimes it looked like I was teaching a monkey but hay she got it, so whatever works, works... give him so free outside time between classes and before might help.
Deena i HAVE only done the extra school work thing that one or two times and that was because ds really needed that to get agrip. It actually worked and I never did it again. He was fussing over two pages so I gave him a third and it was not huge amounts but the punishment fit the crime in that instance. The other two never needed me to do that. This one was more of a power struggle thing and he needed to respect the fact that school was his job. What he did not realise is that doing that extra page put him ahead the next day and made my day easier!
So thisis helpful as my DS7 is exactly like this.I don't have a ball like that - but I did make him do laps the other day (and counted it for pe). He had such a better attitude after. I never thought of having him do it before work. Thanks!
