Hi all, I started homeschooling this year & it has been rough!! I have 2 boys, ages 6 & 8, and they are full of energy. I am having a hard time getting them to complete their work in a timely manner. They are also acting silly & making pictures all over their work rather than doing the work. They only seem to be focused about 1/2 the time. Is this normal for 2 boys of this age??? I had to seperate them after the 1st week because they distract each other too much. That seems to work better, but I am feeling like a bad teacher & wondering if I can do this. Things were going pretty well for a few weeks, but the last 2 weeks have been bad. Is it possible that I need to have them do less?? How do I know if I am giving them too much or too little? Yikes! I need help!
Yes, it's normal for boys ages 6 and 8 to be full of energy and NOT attentive to bookwork! I would suggest keeping paperwork to a minimum and maybe 15 minutes at a time. Try to incorporate as much hands-on stuff as you can. If they can do craftsy stuff, try lapbooking. If they only want to do legos, there are lego lesson plans at their website. Use them as counters to do math with. Let them do coloring or crafts while you do read-alouds. Try to incorporate educational videos. Try some free educational activities from www.starfall.com and/or Head of the Class.
Thanks for your reply. I will try what you have suggested. We use A Bekka & I have them do 2-5 pages from each subject per day, plus personnal reading, Bible verse, spelling lists. I will try more hands-on learning & see how that goes. Thanks again!!
From what I have heard Akbeka is the hardest curriculum and very repititious. Perhaps a lighter curriculum would work. Or just reduce the paper work to one sheet each and supplement with lapbooks, reading, nature study, educational tv, field trips and the like. Bless you too, I have one boy and couldn't imagine two. My dd is more booky and gets down to her school work thankfully. My son is easily distracted at seven and wiggles, procrastinates, interrupts and so on. It can be a real lesson in patience for me most days. Hang in there you will find something that works for all of you.
I have a 6 and 8 year old too. My 6 year old is very active. I think he would stage a revolt if he had to do a lot of continual seat work. We spend full days on school but I try to mix things up like going from reading on the couch to a computer activity to playing outside to sitting at the table doing math to a hands-on activity to reading on the couch again... you get the idea. It isn't as big of deal for my 8 year old who isn't so active, but my 6 year old needs to have things changed up throughout his day. Sometimes if restlessness is present I will try and change things up so a sit down activity becomes a moving around the room activity.
I have 8 and 6yo boys...and a 4yo, too. The activities you describe would work well for my oldest (likes to read, loves worksheets) but no way for my 6yo. I've found he does really well with hands on - even if that means giving him building blocks while I read to him. He'll tell me what I read...I think he just needs to burn some of that energy. Another thing - after doing some reading on how boys learn differently than girls, I tried doing school after lunch (so morning are for free play). It is amazing how much more is accomplished, how much more is learned...and in less time. I can't do this every day, but it was an interesting lesson for me.
Oh, and BTW, there's nothing wrong with practicing math facts or spelling or writing with sidewalk chalk outdoors, on the sidewalk, paved driveway, board fences, or the side of the garage... Or at a large whiteboard or chalkboard while standing up. I had one firstgrader once who would ONLY do reading while sitting on my lap or standing beside me where he could wiggle -- could NOT convince him to sit in a chair to do it! Nothing wrong with practicing math facts with building blocks on the floor as manipulatives OR "answer a question correctly and get a block to add to your building". Or little cars as manipulatives. Or other "answer a question right and ..." with an activity as a "reward" (answer correctly then hop three times, answer correctly then stand on your head, answer correctly then do a somersault, whatever). Or outdoors, answer correctly then... run a lap of the yard, throw a ball, kick a ball, bat a ball, run to first base (see how many "runs" they can accumulate by answering 4 questions correctly while going to first base, second base, third base, then home). A question might be as small as 1+3, or bigger like "skip count to 100 by 5s", or a factual question about science or history. Anything that uses motor activity is fair game for active boys! It occurs to me that you could sometimes turn it around, too -- first do a somersault, then I'll "let" you answer a question!
Draw a number line on the driveway. Line the boys up, give them a math fact, and let them race to the correct answer. Active boys are just that...ACTIVE. It's their nature. And I think you'll eventually learn that this is one good reason why you chose to homeschool. They will learn better once you figure out how to direct their energy toward learning. In "school", the teacher isn't able to do that and your boys would always be getting into trouble simply because they would be "too active".
Thanks for the "remember to have fun" reminder. As a former accountant, it's easy for me to make everything structured. During my lesson today, I had to be mindful to pull back and relax. It's taking practice for me to learn to go with the flow of things. My son is smart, but would have a difficult time in a traditional school setting. I love the creative ideas that everyone seems to have. I really need that!!
Welcome! I am curious, why are you having them complete 2-5 pages per subject, per day? We used A Beka at this age and it is major overkill to do too many pages in one shot since it IS so repetitious. I would go bananas, even at my age. You received some great advice. When Ems was younger, I would take her A Beka math book outside and we would do the problems on the driveway with sidewalk chalk. For every problem she got correct, I allowed her to draw a picture under it with chalk. Yes, that took a bit longer but not as long as it would have taken if she was distracted or bored. Also, while doing things in a timely fashion is important for some areas of life, learning and understand is a life experience and takes place all day, everyday. Learning and understanding can't be timed. Granted you don't want to be working on school all day either so find a way that works for their learning style. Do they like rocks, cars, dirt? What they like, use to your advantage. If the book wants to know what 10+21 is, have them collect or break up sticks and work out the problem so they can see it and apply it. How about using rocks as manipulatives.Get them a cheap bucket and have them go to town collecting. This can be science too. HAVE FUN!!!! They are at a great age for fun and learning at the same time.
Wow! All GREAT ideas that never came to my very structured way of thinking. I always prefer to start at a certian time, have the boys working in seperately & finish at a certain time. I have to adjust my way of doing things. We always do some physical activity before school. We live close to a nice beach, so we either do 45 minutes of run/walk on the beach or around the marina, walk 45 minutes on a trail or they ride their scooters while I walk on the bike trail. Then, we start our lessons about 10am, lunch at 11:30 & back to our lessons until they are finished...anywhere from 2-4pm. I plan on changing that. Maybe we will keep our morning exercise, do 1 subject, free time for 30 minutes,reading, lunch, another subject, an educational show, another subject & free time. I am so glad that I found this site! I thought maybe I was the only one who could not keep her boys calm & focused for 4 hrs!! But, I am not crazy! Thanks a MILLION!!!
Well I am delighted to know someone else is going through what I am. I knew boys would be less willing to sit still and thought our problem was because they are twins, but I guess not. I just joined today because I am having similar problems.
I haven't had time to read all the responses in detail so I'm sorry if this is a repeat! I don't have boys but I do have a very active girl and these are some things that work for her! We have a small trampoline that she goes to bounce on when she needs to get some extra wiggles out. We also recently bought a Wii so that is used as a way to get some more wiggles out. She is also very motivated by the timer. She is given x amount of time to finish a certain subject. If she has extra time left over, that goes into the computer/Wii "bank". If she takes longer then the timer, the extra time gets subtracted from her "bank". At the end of school work, the time she earned is turned in for computer time or playing fun games on the Wii.
I love the "bank" idea! I also use a timer with my 8 yr old. He actually wants it ticking because he says it reminds him to keep working. I let them go at their own pace, so no consequences if the timer goes off, but we use it as a guide & I think it helps. Today we will try something new...complete 1 subject & then 20 minutes of free time. I am hoping this will help. We have 5 subjects to complete today, but I am cutting back on the amount of each subject. I just get too focused on being 1/2 way thru the book by Jan 1st & completing the entire textbook by July. But, I agree with what another parent said about Abekka being very repetitive. So, if there are 20 multiplication problems on 1 page, I will be having him do 10 only. We may get thru the math book on time if I do it this way!
I have 2 active girls that I started homeschooling when they were 5 and 7. We couldn't get through a workbook to save our life. They are 13 and 11 now and have learned far more than I every would have dreamed with very minimal "workpages" - just a few for math every now and then. Their yearly test scores are all very high (I wouldn't do yearly testing, but it's required by law here) and they seem to understand far more than their traditional schooled friends. As a former teacher, I've learned the hard way that teaching to the child's learning style makes everyone's life easier. Best wishes!
