I'm guessing that everything I write here you've tried, but here goes...phillipians48 wrote:I need advice dealing with attitudes. My 6 yo dd enjoys school and the work / fun. My 5yo ds, Isaak (means laughter) enjoys fun - not any work. My son lures dd away from her school to go play. This year, we will be doing mfwk and 1st grade with more concentrated school time than previous years.
I am excited about the curriculum and teaching, but when I think of son's attitudes, I get very discouraged. We have played games and done phonics outside previously. Any repetition, even games, are complained about by ds. It is hard for me to invent new and exciting ways to work on skills. Fortunately, both are bright and learn quickly, however, some skills need repetition.
Any mention of school, or sitting at the table starts the whining. We do many activities without sitting, but there are times we need to be sitting or at least gathered around a table so I can stay focused. It doesn't appear to be the sitting that bothers him. He can sit at the computer playing tonka for hours if I let him. It is the idea he has that school is hard. I try to disguise school as play and this works, but sometimes the word "school" slips out and he resists the training. I am working on changing his outlook of school. My 6yo dd named our school "homefun" all on her own. I have tried to carry this concept over to our son.
We also have a 2yo blessing toddling around at the time.
Thanks for any suggestions.
1. Do the worst stuff first with a promise of "after math we do science."
2. Spell out each day what needs to be done. Use something the child can see (a sticker chart, notes on the white board, etc.). Let the child mark off each activity as it is done. This is good for a child who needs to see his progress.
3. Save the fun for last. No computer games until school is done.
4. We're doing well using a card system. We put up four pockets on our wall, one for each child. At the beginning of each day, the pockets contain five colored cards (dark green, light green, yellow, red, and black). Each time a child dawdles or complains, he must "pull a card" and move to the next color. If a child is on dark green, he's done nothing wrong that day. Light green means that there was one goof and he needs to be careful. Yellow means that he doesn't get any sweets or computer game. Red means he also gets an extra chore and black adds an early bedtime. We don't use this for offenses like lying or hurting each other, but for school attitudes. It works for us ... some.
5. Start each school day with prayer. Pray for the attitudes that the children need and thank God in advance for providing ds with the perseverence (remember t..t..turtle?) he needs for today. Ask the kids to pray for what you need for the day (joy, confidence, energy). Don't hesitate to pray again if needed.
6. Give really small bites of work. For my ds, he just froze when I asked him to copy an entire proverb. However, I broke the proverb up and he copied one line at a time and throughout the day, finished it. You can even have him write one word at a time using different colored pencils for each word.
Sounds like you are doing a great job infusing as much fun into school as you can. However, not all of school is fun, and there's a time for buckling down and working through the not-so-fun stuff. Hope some of these ideas help.