This. drives. me. CRAZY! Perhaps it's my (high school level) PS background, or my OCD-ness about neat work? It drives me insane that my child complains and complains about writing, says his hand hurts, yada, yada, but given 2 seconds without my watchful eye, and his paper is full of doodles and/or he's turned real work into something more creative (like practicing writing the word bed would turn into a e for a matress and a b and d for bedposts.) Generally speaking, creativity is not his strong suit, and he's never liked art all that much, so the doodling, at least in my mind, says "I don't want to" or "you can't make me"?? Other subjects or projects are fine. It's just writing. I realize he's 5, but is it too much to ask him to do a page in HWT without drawing all over the lines he's supposed to have put letters/words in?? :roll: Am I being unreasonable? (Wait... I take that back... he does it for certain types of math, too. He enjoys fractions, multiplication, etc., but he HATES, HATES, HATES plain old addition/subtraction and would rather poke his eyes out than have to do those. Doodles abound!)
Doodles, in my experience, generally show active brainwork. Some people actually remember a lecture better if they doodle than if they're taking notes. Maybe his 5 year old brain is more ready to do oral work than written work? It would not be unusual for an advanced 5 year old to be that way -- more ready to talk and read than to do writing.
I think it's your OCD kicking in. I know my friend's daughter has OCD, and this would freak her out, too.
I wouldn't like doodles on the actual worksheets and assignments either, but he is only five, so I think I'd have to let it go no matter how crazy it made me. His curriculum seems pretty advanced for a five year old. Obviously he is able to do it, but perhaps in his five year old mind, it looks daunting when he sits down in the mornings. I found this to be true for my son. I had to do a couple things to help he realize that... 1. It wasn't as much as he thought it was. 2. If he just starts, he'll get done. 3. There is an end, and I'm not going to keep adding assignments. So, over time, I figures out this... 1. He needs his own check list to see the progress he is making during the day. 2. During the day, I might just say, "Finish that and we can have our snack." or "Once you've finished your math, we'll have lunch." It's not that I would withhold his lunch if he didn't finish, but by holding up lunch as a pleasant break-time, he found the motivation to finish up what he was working on. 3. The greatest motivator for my son is the thirty minutes of computer time he gets when he checks off the last assignment on his checklist. That is the only time he gets on the computer, so it is a big deal for him. 4. Sometimes, I had to cut assignments into smaller bites. If the assignment seemed large to him, he'd just stare at it like a deer caught in headlights. I had to show him how it could be broken into easy steps.
I hear ya. My 6yo is like that as well, although her doodles do all have to do with the homework.. For instance, reading is something she's struggled with. She had a worksheet with 4 simple sentences and she had to match the sentence with a picture. Well, she did fine on that part, but then she had to draw lines between sentences and pictures from other problems.. and then she had to draw a balloon thought bubble over the dog and have him thinking about a bone.. etc etc. I think at this age, it's a good thing though. To me, it means she is making creative connections between the words and the pictures, even if she's doing it in her own way. And isn't that the whole point of homeschooling (at least for us)? Yes, her work looks crazy messy, and someone looking at it wouldn't have a CLUE what she's done. But she talks me through every single thing on that page, so I know she's got it. Sadly, trying to hurry her up to go onto the next thing doesn't work LOL. She has to do a problem, talk about it, doodle about it, then move onto the next one. It's a minor thing, and she still finishes her work up (with reminders) so I let it go. I was also thinking he might actually LOVE art, he just doesn't like structured stuff as much. He sounds like a pretty creative kid to me!
I so get it. My five year old loves to draw but hates writing. She has taken to illustrating her words on occassion. I want neat printing and she turns the letters into faces or more elaborate artworks. Sigh. I try not to stop her yet as she is so young and perhaps it will lead to her remembering more. It's not even the doodling that irks me really it's the time I feel is wasted doing the doodling that irks me. Instead of moving forward with work we have to wait for the latest artwork to be complete :| I am hoping it will pass
Wow he is 5 and doing writing assignments? My dd7 hasn't begun and real writing work yet. She writes to her pen pal and writes made up stories for fun on her own time. For handwriting she does copywork using selections from the Bible, poetry or literature. One day a week she does her handwriting from a history selection to add to her My America book and she illistrated it. Perhaps this would be something your son would enjoy since he likes to doodle. I use paper that has a blank space on top for drawing and lines below for writing. Grace has gotten pretty creative over time.
I have always wished I could doodle, I couldn't draw a cute little picture to save my life, but have always wanted to. However, my 13yo ds doodles all the time and it drives me CRAZY. I don't know if it is because I want neat work or because his doodles look girly, or both. Like when he writes his name it has all kinds of swirls on it and he draws lots of stars and smiley faces. It just seems girly to me. ETA: My DH doodles, too, but his a neat doodles/drawings. I don't like it when he doodles though because I don't think he is paying attention when he does. LOL
Doodles mean that Ems is bored, not interested, or that she doesn't understand and gave up. Sometimes work simply has to be done whether she likes it or not, but sometimes I need to see where I can make changes that work for Ems. After all, my goal is to teach her according to her learning style and not mine. At least I need to try to find a happy medium between the two.
Well... at least I'm not alone! :lol: I've also tried the "do this and then you can do that" approach, but it usually doesn't motivate. Patty - Yeah, learning to write neatly is just one of those boring things that requires practice. Handwriting w/o Tears has been the most successful for him so far, but he still doesn't like it. LOL! His occupational therapist told me just to keep going with it, so that's what I'm doing. I'm thinking about repeating the yellow book.
Boys just don't like writing. Get used to it! LOL My son is 9 and still HATES writing (handwriting and otherwise). It's gotten better, but still, if he could do everything orally, he would. When he was 5 I let him trace almost everything. I think when he was 6 also. Boys have more trouble with fine motor skills than girls, also. My evaluator/mentor recommended the tracing until he could do well on his own. His handwriting is MUCH better now. Even every now and then I'll let him trace something just to tighten up. I've found that cutting things is a good way to work on hand control as well. I used to use a spelling curricula that had him cutting/pasting his words. He didn't even know he was working on mastering writing! LOL Good luck!!!
I think doodling is a form of creativity. I find it helps my daughter to doodle while listening to her lessons.
It's not uncommon for younger children (Especially little boys) to complain about pain from writing. They hold their pencil too tight (watch him and see) They hold it tight to have more 'control' over the pencil. To do handwriting right and form the letters, he's having to concentrate, hold it tight, have control, etc. To doodle-he doesn't have to be so precise so it's less stressful, less control is needed, looser grip=less hand pain. It's normal. I'm guessing, though he may be advanced mentally for his age, physically, he's physically on track for a 5 year old? It's not uncommon for 5 year old to not have the dexterity and fine motor control to write. (he just recently turned 5 didn't he??) I'd back off on handwriting right now. Let him do his work orally. Find other ways to work on his fine motor skills and hand strength (just google it-there are lots of things he can do-we had to work on this with my son as well) then give handwriting another go in a month or two....
I have a doodler. If he has a math page to do where he has to connect the lines I can be sure to find 1,000 criss-crossing lines when I look at his page. I just usually have him do things orally instead of trying to follow the lines. Usually I find doodling show up when he is bored. Art is a major love for him though. He CANNOT doodle and listen at the same time. He goes off into his own little world as he draws. While some doodling does drive me crazy I try to let some things slide knowing that it is just a part of who he is. I tend to be more "strict" about handwriting pages being doodle-free than any other subject because doodles extend from his letters and make his handwriting harder to read.
Yes, actually he JUST caught up to the level of a 5 year old. He's been in and out of physical and occupational therapy since he was 10 days old. I really have to work with him a lot to keep him from back-sliding. We've been doing playdoh, stickers, cutting, etc. to keep his hands working well. This time last year, he wasn't even able to hold a pencil and tested at the level of a 2 year old for all fine motor skills. He's doing a million times better now, but he still complains. Sometimes I can't tell if he's complaining because (1) he's a grouch that day (2) he honestly can't do something (3) he knows it's gotten him out of work in the past, so why not try again. :| I don't get why it "hurts" :roll: to write letters but not to draw on them. :lol:
2little boys - he is 5 years old and pretty much advanced in schooling as I see in you signature field. Do you *really* expect him to be an advanced and about perfect student in ANY times and any task and subject?
Of course not. I'm not sure if that was meant to be playful or if you're attacking me. I'll assume you meant nothing by that since you haven't been here very long and haven't had a chance to get to know me. Obviously I'm here to find out if doodling is normal for a 5 year old (which, obviously it is). I worry a lot more about things like handwriting because he got such a rough start in life with anything related to motor skills. There are a lot of things he's not able to do, and since my area of expertise is high school, I have to question sometimes what's normal and what's not. The things in my signature are absolutely NOT pushed on him by anyone ... me or dh or anyone else in the family. Those are things he has chosen to do, and aside from math and handwriting practice, does almost entirely on his own. Always has. That's just the type of personality he has, because dh and I are the same way.
2littleboys - WHY would I attack you?? ((Sorry)) if it sounded like this Just know, that I am a foreigner and have little bit of difficulties sometimes to comprehend cirtain things; like a discussion of Self-esteem article. Here is the same, I was not sure what the concern was about at all. Sorry for being insensitive.
Ok! I hoped that's all it was. I've never had a problem on this site, but on others, people have said some truly horrible things to or about me because my kids are accelerated learners. It's amazing the things people will say sometimes thinking they're anonymus online, I suppose? Thanks for clearing that up. I kinda thought that's all it was.
