First grade work speed - how to improve?

[monalisa]

My dd7 is a V E R Y SLOOOOOW writer, both letters and numbers. She CAN write faster, and do her work faster, but she generally seems to be purposefully going really slow for copy work and math worksheets in particular (for most everything that involves writing really). It's like she is zoning out. Today on the math drill worksheet she was stopping at +1 problems for more than a few seconds like she had to think about them. She knows them, there is no reason to not just write the answer.

 

It isn't that she doesn't understand or know what to do. She is choosing to go slow. She can form her letters & numbers just fine, and in fact by going slow she makes them sloppier.

 

Any ideas on how to speed her up? I am going nuts on this, and it is all I can do to keep my cool. (Please don't tell me to not make her write!)

[elise1mds]

HAHAHAHA What a great stress relief to come on here and see this post! I have the EXACT same problem with my 7yo DS. He'll do ANYTHING to keep from writing - stretching, tossing his pencil in the air, wrapping his hair around it, rolling it on the desk - until I remind him to do his work, and then he'll do one, MAYBE two problems before starting the process all over again. It makes me want to climb the walls. I can't wait to hear what advice you get, because, like you, my son KNOWS this stuff. If I do flash cards with him, he knows the answers pat, he just zones out when it comes to writing it down!

[Hockey Mom]

This must be a 1st grader thing. LOL

 

My DS is the same way. I bought an egg timer and set the timer based on the work he has to complete.

 

If he completes the work before the timer goes off, he gets a sticker. At the end of the day, if he has 5 stickers, he gets to pick a prize from my treasure box. My treasure box has cheap pinata toys/candy, stickers, pencils, etc. Probably not the best way to hurry kids along, but it's working for us so far. :)

 

ETA: worksheets generally take 10-15 minutes. And since we've implemented the timer, it's shaved an HOUR off our school day.

[GWOB]

I totally feel your pain. Ds6 (will be 7 in 2 months) takes FOREVER to do anything. He takes twice as long as his older sister who has twice as much work. It is incredibly infuriating.

 

Sometimes, if all the stars align properly, he will complete his work in a timely manner if I set a timer. If I remind him of all the fun things we could do if he would just hurry up, he speeds up. Honestly, I think it just involves some sort of Divine Intervention.

 

Hang in there! And keep telling yourself "I will not eat my children." That helps me make it through the day.

[FO4UR]

idk - :lurk5:

 

I generally have to be within 3 feet of my 1st grader to keep him on task if it's not something he wants to be doing. I have him read the problem out loud if it seems he's taking an incredibly long time for something I know he knows. He's a strong auditory learner, I think...so having him say it out loud actually does help him process.

 

"I will not eat my children." :lol::lol::lol:

[monalisa]

This must be a 1st grader thing. LOL

 

My DS is the same way. I bought an egg timer and set the timer based on the work he has to complete.

 

If he completes the work before the timer goes off, he gets a sticker. At the end of the day, if he has 5 stickers, he gets to pick a prize from my treasure box. My treasure box has cheap pinata toys/candy, stickers, pencils, etc. Probably not the best way to hurry kids along, but it's working for us so far. :)

 

ETA: worksheets generally take 10-15 minutes. And since we've implemented the timer, it's shaved an HOUR off our school day.

 

 

Well, I see I have a lot of company in this misery :) We've named our school Noodle Academy because getting my daughter to work is like pushing a noodle!

 

The treasure box is a good idea; I have one, but was only using it for completing a Calculadder level. I'm going to try it with the stickers! I see you are using BJU, which is the same math we are using. Getting my dd through those worksheets is about to make me pull my hair out.

[pageta]

We've had that problem a number of times and the solution that seems to work best is to do less. I didn't say stop - just do less. Cut back on the amount you're giving them until they start working quickly, and then gradually increase the amount of work until they're up to how much you want them to be doing again.

 

They're looking at it as the insurmountable task and they just give up. If you give them something they think they can handle, they get to work and get it done. Trust me.

[Homemama2]

I had the same issue w/ my ds7.

Since I knew that he COULD do the work faster, he was just being slow, I gave him a set amount of time, say 15min, to finish the sheet. If he didn't, then it became homework. Which meant when Daddy walked in the door and normally wrestles with the boys (ds's favorite time of day), he would take any uncompleted worksheets and go sit by himself in the other room and finish them. This only had to happen once! (oh the drama!) and now all I need is to give a gentle reminder, "this will become homework" to get his pencil moving. ;)

[PeterPan]

Does she write her own things slowly when she's not writing for school? That might reveal something. It might not be as easy or comfortable for her as you think. She might be hungry or tired. She might need more vitamin D. She might need a snow day. It might be time to pursue the Holiday of the Day thing and just do something DIFFERENT. She might be tired of what you're doing. She might be working so hard that she has maxed out her readiness, kwim? If she's 6, is she K5 or 1st? Either way, she's doing a lot of work. Not that I begrudge a lot of work, but it does get tiring, kwim? Given how young she is, I'd just call a vacation day. You all might be burnt out. How about read about reptiles day? I'm pretty sure you need to go to the zoo and draw reptiles, read about reptiles, write a sentence under your picture of a reptile, eat gummy worms, and make reptile food dinner. :)

 

It's ok. She's only in 1st. Next year you can sweat. This year, cut yourself some slack and do something else. If the answer isn't apparent to you, sometimes some time away gives you better perspective or just a chance for her to outgrow it.

[mommyto3]

HAHAHAHA What a great stress relief to come on here and see this post! I have the EXACT same problem with my 7yo DS. He'll do ANYTHING to keep from writing - stretching, tossing his pencil in the air, wrapping his hair around it, rolling it on the desk - until I remind him to do his work, and then he'll do one, MAYBE two problems before starting the process all over again. It makes me want to climb the walls. I can't wait to hear what advice you get, because, like you, my son KNOWS this stuff. If I do flash cards with him, he knows the answers pat, he just zones out when it comes to writing it down!

 

THIS is my ds6.5! I have the rolling the pencil on the table, dropping the pencil on the floor, falling out of his chair, scraping books/pencils/anything across the table. You name it, he does it. This happens while he's writing, reading, doing math, again anything.

 

I've started a chart for each day and use frown faces, so it's negative instead of positive. Today he got too many and lost his computer for the day, which resulted in wailing and crying. It has been working well, we've had more good days this week than bad.

[JenAL]

I am so glad to read these responses! It's not just my ds6! Everything posted is familiar here in our home. My ds6 (will be 7 in late April) knows the work, but takes forever to get any kind of writing done. And what makes it worse is that he isn't taking his time to be sure to write neatly, he's just not focused. If I'm not sitting right there constantly reminding him to focus & move on to the next problem, it takes f o r e v e r to get a few problems done. I understand that a 1st grader still needs a lot of 1 on 1, but I'm trying to incorporate some independent work for him. My dd4 will start K next year & I'll need some extra time to work 1 on 1 with her.

 

I'm going to go out & buy a timer just for him to try that. Thanks for the suggestion. I pray it helps!

[Tabrett]

Same problem here with my 1st grader!!! I can sit 3 feet away and will have to get up and tap on the paper to refocus her! I am always saying "do your work". I normally sit beside her, but we are using some CLE material that have time for independent work. This is the time I try to remove myself from her and "encourage" her to work independently! Sometimes she can and sometimes I have to constantly "encourage".

[monalisa]

Given how young she is, I'd just call a vacation day. You all might be burnt out. How about read about reptiles day? I'm pretty sure you need to go to the zoo and draw reptiles, read about reptiles, write a sentence under your picture of a reptile, eat gummy worms, and make reptile food dinner. :)

 

It's ok. She's only in 1st. Next year you can sweat. This year, cut yourself some slack and do something else. If the answer isn't apparent to you, sometimes some time away gives you better perspective or just a chance for her to outgrow it.

 

:lol: My dd would LOVE this! Yes, I need to chill out a little, I'll admit. This is good perspective, OhElizabeth.

[jenL]

I will think of this post every day I am struggling with ds6 (will be 7 in April). I will chant, "I am not alone. I am not alone" over and over again as I'm about to rip my hair out! :lol:

 

Seriously, there are some great suggestions in here, and I'm eager to implement them! Great question OP!

[brownie]

I can relate...ds9 is the same way...probably has some attention issues.

 

BUT with respect to the writing...

ds7 was giving me a hard time about writing...whining and such rather than going slowly and I just cut back. Seriously, it did not affect his academic progress. He is supposed to be in 1st grade after being pulled out of ps Kindergarten last year. I reassessed where I could cut the writing. I think it's developmental whether fine motor is strong or not.

 

We dropped Wordly Wise halfway through the book. We'll pick it up again next month and finish.

 

He doesn't have to write a sentence for his spelling words...he's spelling on a 2nd-3rd grade level anyhow so why bother with a contrived sentence?

 

Sometimes I write his reading comprehension answers. Lately he's been writing them himself.

 

After doing a sheet for every letter of the alphabet in about 6 weeks, we dropped formal handwriting. We only do a sheet when I notice an issue with a particular letter.

 

For 'composition' I let him write about 6 lines about whatever he wants and he is very silly about it, but his attitude toward composition is improving again. We do WWE 2 as well and he does the copywork and dictations just fine.

 

I suggest you look for places that the writing doesn't matter that you can cut out or where it is driving dd the most crazy.

 

Brownie

[nova mama]

With DD7, if I see that he's spending more time than he needs to on his work, I give him a time limit, e.g., 10 more minutes to finish the page of math problems. Whatever is left will be homework, i.e., we will move on with the school day and he can finish the math problems after school (and before he gets to play video games). I started this over a week ago and, guess what: he hasn't had homework once yet. :D

[Garga]

Here's an idea that I haven't tested yet.

 

Here's what happened today: I noticed that ds7 seemed to be forgetting his basic math facts, though he works on them daily. He's been starting to use his fingers again.

 

So I pulled out the flashcards. He just stared at them like he'd never seen math facts before and paused a LOOOONG time before answering the card. Finally, I demonstrated how fast he should be on the cards. I told him that he might not be there yet, but that in about a week he should be able to do the cards like this (and then I proceeded to show myself the cards and answer each fact immediately.)

 

All of a sudden, after my demonstration of what I expected from him, he could do the math facts as fast as I had.

 

Since my ds7 is also slow at doing his written math work, I was thinking that a demonstration of how to write his answers is in order tomorrow. You can try it too. If I remember to post, I'll let you know if it works.

[monalisa]

Here's an idea that I haven't tested yet.

 

Since my ds7 is also slow at doing his written math work, I was thinking that a demonstration of how to write his answers is in order tomorrow. You can try it too. If I remember to post, I'll let you know if it works.

 

This is an excellent idea & point! I was thinking about this thread last night, along the lines of 1st graders not really knowing HOW to do their work promptly (especially with my dd being by herself). I'm going to try demonstrating too! Thanks!

[skaterbabs]

Dot was doing that, so I started setting a timer. There aren't (so far) any consequences for not finishing before the timer goes off, yet just the idea that the timer has been set motivates her to finish. I'll typically give her ten minutes to do something I know takes her two, or whatever. The point is to give more time than you know it takes, but to limit how much time the child can use.

[Lightly Salted]

This must be a 1st grader thing. LOL

 

Oh it must be!

 

We have the same thing happen at our house. My first grader is 7.5, and her work is NOT too hard for her, though she often resents that it's harder than her brother's. There are days I let her move at her pace, which can mean she works for an extra hour or so ... there are days I set aside some tasks, like reading, to be done later in the day with Daddy. Some days I try to encourage her to start early (she's usually agreeable; in the future when she's more self-directed, I can see her starting MUCH earlier).

 

Today, however, I chose to serve as her scribe (in math, which I normally leave to her), and it was AMAZING how much faster her work went. I'm always right at the table, or right behind them at the computer desk, so it's not like I'm not involved, but it got me to thinking that maybe it IS still just too much writing (her math, Sonlight LA copywork/questions, GWG page, ETC page, spelling worksheet, handwriting).

 

So, I'm going to work to break up our seatwork block to give hands a rest, and be more willing to scribe when her writing isn't required, and see if that helps us. I know with my DS, I'm constantly amazed at how much less I expect of him, now that I see just how young he really is ... maybe I'm expecting too much of her as well?

 

:grouphug:

 

anyway, those are my rambling thoughts; you're not alone!