Want to cry: are Mondays extra hard for you and your hsers?

[Alicia64]

I'm starting to realize. . . duh. . . that almost every Monday my boys are fighting me for dominance. One is particularly "testy" and loves to go up against me.

 

He's not mean spirited in the least -- in fact, he's very sunshiny, but he wants to be in charge no doubt about it.

 

He seems to mellow T through F, but with Sat. and Sun. off of our lessons, he's on full throttle Monday morning.

 

I almost think I have to do lessons with him 7 days a week!

 

Seriously, I'm really thinking about doing a shortened version on Sat. and Sun.

 

I'm a little bit of a marshmellow, but can hold my ground. I think, overall, this boy is just very strong minded. Plus, he's not that comfortable with academics.

 

When he does his work, he gets through math u see easily enough, but he struggles with reading and writing. Whereas his twin is flying right along. Still my strong boy has strengths -- as in, I won't play chess w/ him anymore because I lose in four or five moves.

 

What am I doing wrong??

 

Alley

[JoyfulMama]

Mondays are hard here too. We enjoy the swing of things on Sundays, and don't always want to get back to routine.

I have found though, that starting with their favorite thing on Mondays helps us. YMMV.

:grouphug:

[robsiew]

:grouphug::grouphug:

 

I don't have any great answers, but can sympathize with Mondays being rough. My 9 and 6 y/o are the hardest ones to reign back in after the weekend. I think expecting the rough transition is part of it. Beyond that, could you make Monday a lighter day? Maybe that would help to ease back in. Or put something on Monday that your ds particularly would look forward to... science experiment, project, art... whatever it might be that he likes.

 

My 6 y/o ds has a horrible time transitioning in everything.. Mondays are no exception! Me just realizing that he's going to have a rough start helps a bit.

[Greta]

I almost think I have to do lessons with him 7 days a week!

 

Seriously, I'm really thinking about doing a shortened version on Sat. and Sun.

 

Honestly, this might not be such a bad idea. I have a friend who gave me this advice a few years ago. We're not doing it any more, but it REALLY helped us at the time.

 

She said that for her family, "school" is just a fact of daily life. By making it a daily phenomenon, it ended all the groaning and arguments about school days versus non-school days. Of course, needless to say, they do less on any given day than most of us do on a "school day", because it's more spread out. Their "seat work" is very limited, and they do lots of reading aloud together. But it is simply part of the daily routine like eating breakfast and brushing teeth.

 

I tried it for awhile when I was getting a lot of attitude about not wanting to do school. I decreased the work load, but made it seven days a week. It worked! I think we're in a place now where we don't need to do that. But I wouldn't hesitate to go back to it if that changed. Depending on the particular kid, circumstances, etc., sometimes it's actually simpler.

 

ETA: My dd was about the same age as your ds when we were dealing with this. Maybe it's, in part, a developmental thing. I don't know. But hang in there! You're NOT doing anything wrong! And it will get better. :grouphug:

Edited May 17, 2010 by GretaLynne

[susankenny]

Hi,

 

Maybe have something special planned on Monday? (an experiment, project, etc). Also, do you let him choose the order of subjects. For some reason, this makes a big difference with my children. My daughter likes to ease into school, so she always does her silent reading first on my bed. Afterward, she seems to be a little more open to seatwork. Just a thought.

 

Susan

[SilverMoon]

You're not alone. :tongue_smilie: Monday must have a bad reputation for a good reason. I take care not to schedule heavy work days or tests on that day.

[Snickerdoodle]

We do some work over the weekend and we've always done it that way. The boys are completely unaware of this M-F deal.

 

How I am doing it at present is using the weekend to catch up on work we didn't get to during the week. We seem to get a few distractions during the week. Math is a daily subject regardless.

 

Works for us. :)

[Greta]

Math is a daily subject regardless.

 

Works for us. :)

 

I've been thinking about adding Math to our Saturdays. Not a full-blown school day, but Math and half an hour of reading a good book. :001_smile:

[Dawn E]

Mondays are typically very hard, but we've also often had marvelous Mondays and terrible Tuesdays. There are a lot of factors...how busy or off-schedule the weekend was, developmental issues, etc. However, I appreciate the break that comes with the weekend and don't think I could give that up in the hopes that it would change the issue.

 

As previous posters have already said, I try to make sure Monday is not overloaded, and I let her choose the order of the schedule sometimes which helps. We do several subjects only one or two day/s a week, so if Monday is heading down the tubes, I'll bump extra subjects off to another day and focus on getting the essentials done. I also have to be very conscious of my own contribution to the day...sometimes after a particularly tiring weekend I have my own bad attitude to reign in.

[johnandtinagilbert]

What worked for us was starting our week at 4pm on Sunday evening. I tell them the weekend world ends at 4pm. We have to clean our rooms, do our evening chores and all games, friends, or weekend activities are over. We pull out our planners and look toward the next week. After all of this, the house is calmer and its easy to have dinner and head to bed, just like a school night. Since we started this, the world has changed.

 

The other thing is make sure he's getting enough activity during school days...7 year olds are wiggly things, especially boys :) So, maybe you could start your Monday with a walk around the block, or two...

 

happy trails!

[Dawn E]

What worked for us was starting our week at 4pm on Sunday evening. I tell them the weekend world ends at 4pm. We have to clean our rooms, do our evening chores and all games, friends, or weekend activities are over. We pull out our planners and look toward the next week. After all of this, the house is calmer and its easy to have dinner and head to bed, just like a school night. Since we started this, the world has changed.

 

The other thing is make sure he's getting enough activity during school days...7 year olds are wiggly things, especially boys :) So, maybe you could start your Monday with a walk around the block, or two...

 

happy trails!

 

This is great advice. I need to start doing this as well.

[siloam]

Alley,

 

Yep, every Monday.

 

I don't know what is worse. My girls throwing little fits at everything that doesn't go perfectly, or my spending 30 mins online because I am sick of dealing with it.

 

Yet somehow we do manage to get things done and move forward.

 

Heather

[rafiki]

.

[MerryAtHope]

Things that can help:

 

1, a routine that they can depend on. I love workboxes (link in my siggy with pics) for just this reason--they see the boxes, it's very concrete, they know to do them in order etc... Another thing you can do is get out their stack of books & after "together" time stuff, let them choose the order for independent subjects. Some kids like that bit of control, they still do all of their work, and some kids really do well if they can SEE what has to be done--and see that pile dwindling.

 

2, Prepare. On Sunday night, talk about Monday. "What's tomorrow?" "What are we going to do first?" etc... Get him in the mindset of what happens that next day, and then address the arguing or whatever he does head on. "Sometimes when I tell you what to do, you argue about it. We're not going to do that tomorrow. I'll say what's next, and you'll say, "yes, Mom." Do you understand?"

 

3, If he's arguing--don't engage him. Simply say, "you're arguing. Are you choosing to disobey?" or just, "You're arguing." End the conversation by not engaging in it. If we argue back, it's as if we are legitimizing whatever their complaint is. If we try to talk them into it, it's as if we're saying obedience isn't necessary unless they agree with us--as if they are on the same authority level as we are. I talk a LOT with my kids and include them in lots of the decisions we make, so I'm not talking about shutting him down or not listening--but drawing the boundaries a little more clearly and realizing what we communicate if we argue back and forth with a 7 yo.

 

HTH some! Merry :-)

[woolybear]

Around here it's usually been Thursdays--day after coop. Everyone is tired (including me) and no one wants to do school (including me:glare:). So, if I try (which I don't always do) then it's like swimming against the current.

[m0mmaBuck]

Mondays are our best days. It only goes down hill from here. Honestly I believe part of it is my fault because I tend to stick around home Monday - Wednesday and focus only on school but by Thursday I need to run errands, catch up on work, clean, etc.... and by Friday it's a nightmare.

[Krista in Colorado]

What worked for us was starting our week at 4pm on Sunday evening. I tell them the weekend world ends at 4pm. We have to clean our rooms, do our evening chores and all games, friends, or weekend activities are over. We pull out our planners and look toward the next week. After all of this, the house is calmer and its easy to have dinner and head to bed, just like a school night. Since we started this, the world has changed.

 

The other thing is make sure he's getting enough activity during school days...7 year olds are wiggly things, especially boys :) So, maybe you could start your Monday with a walk around the block, or two...

 

happy trails!

 

I love the idea of beginning things (and changing the mindset) on Sunday night.

 

We used to begin every school day with a walk around the block. It's a great way to make a clean beginning to the school day . . . and it burns that extra energy. My kids were always a little subdued after that walk. Thanks for the reminder, Tina! :001_smile: