Motivating 6-year-old DD

[EMS83]

Hi, I'm new to this board. I usually frequent the K-8 curriculum board, but this seems more appropriate to post here. My daughter's seat work, if focused on, takes just under an hour. It includes copywork, grammar, math, and phonics. I usually time her and switch to the next thing so that she isn't completely controlling the timeframe. If she hasn't finished, we go back to it at the end of the other activities. But this ends up with us basically cycling through these things 2-4 times each morning because she gets distracted by her 2 younger brothers. They are required to be quiet or leave the room and have their own brief activities, but she really just seems to want to be doing what everyone else is. Or have everyone else be doing what she is. Otherwise she flops around in her seat and talks to them. Our living room is the only work area available.

 

So, does anyone have any advice or anecdotes? If anyone uses Love & Logic principles, how do you apply that to their work? Also, I really want to keep our afternoons reserved for free play/errands and I do not want to get rid of seat work.

[ErinE]

Although it might not be what you need to hear, I recommend expecting seat work to take all morning. Since you have two little ones, I would take frequent breaks. Even without smaller children, my dd at that age only had patience for one seat work task at a time. Expecting her to sit for an entire hour was too much for her attention span.

 

We would do the calendar, then she'd play with a bucket balance. I'd bring her back to the table and we'd work on math. Then she'd play with her math manipulatives. Throughout the morning, we would cycle through her work with a short playtime in between sessions. I kept certain educational toys reserved for school time so she would stay interested in them. We would still finish in plenty of time to have afternoons free.

[Ellie]

Hi, I'm new to this board. I usually frequent the K-8 curriculum board, but this seems more appropriate to post here. My daughter's seat work, if focused on, takes just under an hour. It includes copywork, grammar, math, and phonics. I usually time her and switch to the next thing so that she isn't completely controlling the timeframe. If she hasn't finished, we go back to it at the end of the other activities. But this ends up with us basically cycling through these things 2-4 times each morning because she gets distracted by her 2 younger brothers. They are required to be quiet or leave the room and have their own brief activities, but she really just seems to want to be doing what everyone else is. Or have everyone else be doing what she is. Otherwise she flops around in her seat and talks to them. Our living room is the only work area available.

 

So, does anyone have any advice or anecdotes? If anyone uses Love & Logic principles, how do you apply that to their work? Also, I really want to keep our afternoons reserved for free play/errands and I do not want to get rid of seat work.

But you're not talking about "motivation." You're talking about a young child who wants to spend time with other young children. :)

 

Not sure what to advise since you don't want to give up seatwork. Maybe 15 minutes of seatwork, followed by 15 minutes of something with the littles, and repeat until finished.

[Cassy]

Admittedly I don't have littles running around, but with DS5 I find that it's best to allow plenty of time for activities and work hard at engaging him in what we're doing. The idea of setting a timer to stay in control just seems counterproductive, as any interest he might be developing in what we're doing would immediately be lost.

 

We're using RightStart A for math, which is very teacher intensive and so I am able to repeatedly focus his attention. For reading we're working through early readers which he enjoys and often he'll read twice as much as I'd planned simply because he's enjoying the story. We start writing with warm-up games with DS8, which he loves, then move on to WWE 1, which again is very teacher intensive and only takes about 15 minutes.

 

I'm not sure from your post how successful you are at keeping the distraction of her younger siblings under control; I can imagine that would be quite crucial.

[EMS83]

Well the seatwork isn't really interesting. It's 15 math problems, one copywork selection, one GWG lesson, and a page or two of Phonics Pathways. Content subjects consist of read alouds, oral narration, and coloring/crafts. I don't time all that and she's not required to read or write. It just goes at the pace it goes. Once we got past Egypt, content hasn't been our issue. It's been her seatwork. And I do have her do it more or less independently. I could change that, it might make her feel better. But then we will have to all do kitchen chores and cooking together. I try to cook from scratch and staples, even snack. Takes t-i-m-e.

 

The littles used to be an issue, but DS2 will sit on his bed until I tell him not to, so when he gets noisy or destructive, off he goes. DS5 is free to look at books or color when I don't need him for his own phonics and math. He's involved in the content reading and coloring. They aren't as much the issue this month. I'll try splitting the seatwork into 2 chunks with a break between and see how it goes. I'd like to hear other ideas, too. Because I foresee trouble redirecting them back to quiet time and also splitting it up into chunks doesn't address the dawdling issue. It may fix it, and it may not. But if it doesn't, there's no recourse. She's still wasting time and refusing to do work.

 

My one idea is to have Friday be catch up day. So theoretically, if she wastes Monday-Thursday flopping around, her Friday will be long and boring. That way at least 4 afternoons are sacred for play (preferably outside). When does anyone do chores or cook??

[AK_Mom4]

My one idea is to have Friday be catch up day. So theoretically, if she wastes Monday-Thursday flopping around, her Friday will be long and boring. That way at least 4 afternoons are sacred for play (preferably outside). When does anyone do chores or cook??

 

At our house, this would have resulted in DD doing no seat work Monday-Thursday. She would happily sacrifice her Friday for 4 days of playing around. :D

 

At age 6, DD had to sit next to me to get her seat work done. BTW - this was the same in public school 1st grade. She only managed to keep focused when the teacher was paying attention. She is not ADD or anything like that - she just got bored easily.

 

I would get her up 30 minutes before the other kids, feed her a small snack and get the seat work done before breakfast. Or send the other two off before lunch, sit down with her, and read a book while she gets it done. Let the natural consequence be that she gets to eat her meal when she finishes. That combined with you being right there should keep her moving.

[Cassy]

Well the seatwork isn't really interesting. It's 15 math problems, one copywork selection, one GWG lesson, and a page or two of Phonics Pathways. Content subjects consist of read alouds, oral narration, and coloring/crafts. I don't time all that and she's not required to read or write. It just goes at the pace it goes. Once we got past Egypt, content hasn't been our issue. It's been her seatwork. And I do have her do it more or less independently. I could change that, it might make her feel better. But then we will have to all do kitchen chores and cooking together. I try to cook from scratch and staples, even snack. Takes t-i-m-e.

 

The littles used to be an issue, but DS2 will sit on his bed until I tell him not to, so when he gets noisy or destructive, off he goes. DS5 is free to look at books or color when I don't need him for his own phonics and math. He's involved in the content reading and coloring. They aren't as much the issue this month. I'll try splitting the seatwork into 2 chunks with a break between and see how it goes. I'd like to hear other ideas, too. Because I foresee trouble redirecting them back to quiet time and also splitting it up into chunks doesn't address the dawdling issue. It may fix it, and it may not. But if it doesn't, there's no recourse. She's still wasting time and refusing to do work.

 

My one idea is to have Friday be catch up day. So theoretically, if she wastes Monday-Thursday flopping around, her Friday will be long and boring. That way at least 4 afternoons are sacred for play (preferably outside). When does anyone do chores or cook??

 

DS11 needed me to sit with him and help him focus until he was 10 yo - sorry, that probably isn't what you wanted to hear :tongue_smilie:. We also did the Friday morning catch-up. If he got everything done during the week Friday mornings were spent doing fun science experiments and art, then we'd finish early, so there was quite a big incentive there which usually worked.

 

As for chores and cooking? That is still a big issue for me. Basically I spend many hours every weekend cooking, cleaning and ironing, it's quite exhausting; I also spend between half an hour and an hour every day cleaning during the week (big house). Meals have become much more basic, which is a sacrifice for me as I love cooking. DH always brings home a takeaway on Fridays :D.

 

It is a juggling act. I have basic priorities: first, my children's education, then my health, and lastly housework. I think it's very important to prioritise my children, after all they are the whole reason why I'm homeschooling. Patience doesn't always come naturally to me, but I strive for it every day.

[blondeviolin]

I have a six year old. Her seat work is about an hour or so as well. I cannot leave her to complete math/language or she'll do the same thing. I can say, "complete this problem while I change your brother's diaper." Or, "Write this dictation sentence while I get a snack ready." But I can't require more than that or she stares off. My understanding is that's just the age.

 

We do split things into math and language blocks. When we begin, I let her pick which she does first. Usually it's math. After that she takes a break and then she comes back and does her language. (I usually take that break time to do reading with her brother.) After lunch and quiet time we do our content things.