Sudden-onset lethargy in a 6yo boy whenever it's time to do schoolwork

[mamakven]

I'm about to lose my mind with this child. He's super smart but pitches a fit every. Single. Time. I try to work with him. I've intentionally kept it brief, for both of our sanity, just the basics, math, explode the code, spectrum reading, italic handwriting (which he alternates with etc alternate days) and hopefully a read aloud chapter. So very minimalistic. Any ideas about what to do to motivate him? Threatening with PS won't work because he'd rather go to school (or so he thinks!!)

[greenbeanmama]

"If you are too tired to do school right now, you will need to go lay down on your bed for an hour and take a nap." Usually only takes once per child in my house!

 

I also tend to save the best-loved school subject for last. And break it up throughout the day - five minutes here, ten minutes there. But on a schedule. After breakfast it is always time for math. After lunch it is always time for X or Y. And make sure he's getting enough active/outside time.

[shinyhappypeople]

"If you are too tired to do school right now, you will need to go lay down on your bed for an hour and take a nap." Usually only takes once per child in my house!

 

I also tend to save the best-loved school subject for last. And break it up throughout the day - five minutes here, ten minutes there. But on a schedule. After breakfast it is always time for math. After lunch it is always time for X or Y. And make sure he's getting enough active/outside time.

 

Yup.  When my younger daughter is "too tired" to do schoolwork, I take her at her word.  "Go rest and when you're ready you can finish your work."

 

It should go without saying that if she's too tired to do her schoolwork, she's also too tired to play Animal Jam or watch TV, etc.

[OneStepAtATime]

Could it be that the materials just aren't challenging enough?  Maybe he is really bored?  That seems to be mainly skills work.  Would he like more content based learning?  What if you added in some interesting science experiment once in a while, or maybe he would like to learn about something from history that he can act out.  What about math games?  Is he getting to move around a lot?  Any outside activities with other kids he can look forward to that could be used as motivation?  Is there a subject he would like to pursue?  

[Arcadia]

I let my lethargic kid choose between running, bathing or cleaning the kitchen floor with wet wipes. He would happily nap if that is a choice and fall asleep.

 

"If you are too tired to do school right now, you will need to go lay down on your bed for an hour and take a nap." Usually only takes once per child in my house!

My youngest sleeps even reading his book :lol: if he is bored he falls asleep sitting.

 

ETA:

My kid stands and walks while doing math and LA. He has slept standing too, much to the amusement of strangers. I have many interesting photos.

Edited March 23, 2016 by Arcadia

[sweetpea3829]

Is he motivated at all by video games?

 

My kids have been playing Prodigy Math (https://www.prodigygame.com/referral.php?referralCode=7A1E6A3262C4&referralName=Crystal%2BGracioso&referralOrigin=link)  since November and they love it.  I love that I can set their assignments and give them specific things to work on.  They love that it's basically a video game.  They are the character of a wizard and they have quests and whatnot to complete.  They engage in "battles" and in order to fight, they have to answer math questions.  Brilliant. 

 

So you can use it as a reward to entice him to get his school work done.  AND...BONUS!  He's doing math review AT.THE.SAME.TIME!

 

Seriously.  I could kiss the developers.  My kids beg to play and often willingly use their allotted daily tablet tags to play instead of playing Minecraft...this AFTER I've already let them play for 30 minutes.  

 

It's Grade 1-8, and it will assign a grade level to your child after a quick diagnostic tool.  But like I said....you can go in there and choose specific math topics to give to him.  There's a huge list.

 

And...it's free.  (Paid membership gives the player more in-game options...more pets to catch, better costumes to wear...etc.  But it doesn't affect the education aspect of it).  

 

So I definitely would suggest giving it a try.  

 

 

 

[SilverMoon]

The town doctor in the Little House episodes suggested castor oil twice a day until it cleared up, and suddenly the boy was quite well.

 

I do the "If you're that tired you must need a nap" thing too.

[HomeAgain]

There seems to be a lot of threads right now on 6yo boys not wanting to do schoolwork. :cool:

 

Around here, it's spring, which means my kid isn't getting out as much as he should, and really, really needs/wants to.  I set parameters for my 6yo: no electronics from 8-3 unless it's needed for schoolwork, I lay out the subjects on paper and visually (covering the table in the living room), keep lessons short, and let him pick what order to do things in.  These bring his options down to what a 6yo should be doing - hands on play, imaginative play, crafts, lessons - AND gives him the slight bit of freedom he needs.  This morning at 8am mine disappeared to play in the garage, ride his bike, throw baseballs, and draw a picture.  At 9:30, he decided to read *a* story to me, and then a second one...and then, well, may as well do math since it looked all puzzle-y....LOL  He went back and forth until there was one thing left to do that was not his favorite, but may as well get it over with..

[Guest]

DS did this for a year. Every single time, my response was "Ok, go lay down in your room until you are ready to do school work."  If he truly was tired, then the rest was what he needed.  If not (about 90% of the time), he realized that the only way he would be able to do anything at all that day was to get school work done.  Eventually, it just wasn't worth it to him anymore.

I also agree with the idea of changing up his work - more challenging, more interesting, etc.

[Jean in Newcastle]

With the exception of reading and writing, all work for a six year old can and if possible should (in my opinion) be active.  So get out the math games and the math manipulatives and the play store etc. and go to town.  Do phonics while doing rhyming games or I spy (something that ends in "all").  Even read aloudscan be done while sitting on a bouncy ball or while hands are busy doing something. 

[BearWallowSchool]

"Go lay down in your bed until you are ready to do school work." works wonders here. 

[OneStepAtATime]

With the exception of reading and writing, all work for a six year old can and if possible should (in my opinion) be active. So get out the math games and the math manipulatives and the play store etc. and go to town. Do phonics while doing rhyming games or I spy (something that ends in "all"). Even read aloudscan be done while sitting on a bouncy ball or while hands are busy doing something.

Agreed

[hornblower]

I'd ditch all that curriculum and find either a history or science or nature study  or art project and work on that instead.  Make up a short list of things he might like & say: 
"This week we can learn about plants, or whales or airplanes. Which do you think you'd like to do more?"
And then go to the library together and get some books on the subject. 
Watch some videos on the subject. 
Do a project. 
Go somewhere - a museum, nature walk, gardening center. 
Work alongside him on any projects - a collage, a poster, a clay diorama, planting seeds, whatever it ends up being. 
Fill up a week learning about something interesting and don't worry about filling out pages in a workbook. 



 

[Ellie]

...except I'd have to tell my dc, "Go lie down," not "Go lay down." :laugh:

[SparklyUnicorn]

How old is he?

 

My 10 year old does this.

 

 

[mamakven]

Thanks everyone! He's 6. I think part of the problem might be that in my attempt to shorten the day and lessen his work, I've eliminated the fun parts! Oops. Maybe I'll try adding stuff BACKin. Also it is spring...

 

He hasn't wanted to play outside much. I should make him.

[OneStepAtATime]

Thanks everyone! He's 6. I think part of the problem might be that in my attempt to shorten the day and lessen his work, I've eliminated the fun parts! Oops. Maybe I'll try adding stuff BACKin. Also it is spring...

 

He hasn't wanted to play outside much. I should make him.

Does he have anyone to play with?  When I was a kid I really didn't have much interest in playing outside unless I had a friend to play with.  Could you find something fun to do together outside? Maybe take a walk and see how many animals you can count or observe the different types of trees or discuss the sounds you can hear...

[Chris in VA]

Can you do more instead of stripping it down?

 

What I mean is--I see the stripped down approach as doing only the most boring subjects. :lol:

 

What would happen if you let him pick a science topic and then explored it by reading and writing about it?

Or what if you started history with something really cool, like Ancient Egypt?

Edited March 23, 2016 by Chris in VA

[mamakven]

Does he have anyone to play with? When I was a kid I really didn't have much interest in playing outside unless I had a friend to play with. Could you find something fun to do together outside? Maybe take a walk and see how many animals you can count or observe the different types of trees or discuss the sounds you can hear...

Nope. His friends moved and only mean kids remain and his similarly aged siblings are in school, only his 17yo brother is also HSed. Nature stuff- great idea!!

[mamakven]

Can you do more instead of stripping it down?

 

What I mean is--I see the stripped down approach as doing only the most boring subjects. :lol:

 

What would happen if you let him pick a science topic and then explored it by reading and writing about it?

Or what if you started history with something really cool, like Ancient Egypt?

Exactly! We're doing ancients next year but I think I need to find fun topics to study till then or else he's going to grow up hating HS :(

[Arcadia]

Does he like birds, bees or squirrels? Flowers are blooming like crazy here and my boys are enjoying observing nature and chasing squirrels.

 

I'll do school outdoors if possible. We did spelling in the sand.

[Tsuga]

"If you are too tired to do school right now, you will need to go lay down on your bed for an hour and take a nap." Usually only takes once per child in my house!

 

I also tend to save the best-loved school subject for last. And break it up throughout the day - five minutes here, ten minutes there. But on a schedule. After breakfast it is always time for math. After lunch it is always time for X or Y. And make sure he's getting enough active/outside time.

 

Exactly here too, and my kids DO go to public school, LOL.

 

"Wow, seems like that play time really took it out of you. I'm sorry to hear that. We'll need to make sure you eat healthier food and go to bed earlier at night."

 

It should go without saying that this is not my approach when my children have lethargy that is not correlated to impending work...

[Guest]

Go outside (together)

Feed him

Play a game (together, preferabbly math)

Do school for 15 mins

Play another game (physical)

Read a lot BUT DONT EVER CALL IT SCHOOL

Go oitside again

Feed him s'more

Do another 15 mins of school

 

That's it. Play the rest of the day.

 

Six year old boys are a special- and exhausting- breed imf

 

Both of mine drove me crazy in their own special way

[SparklyUnicorn]

Thanks everyone! He's 6. I think part of the problem might be that in my attempt to shorten the day and lessen his work, I've eliminated the fun parts! Oops. Maybe I'll try adding stuff BACKin. Also it is spring...

 

He hasn't wanted to play outside much. I should make him.

 

Oh doy...it's in your title!

 

I feel very sleepy at the moment....zzzzz

 

LOL

[ikslo]

Exactly! We're doing ancients next year but I think I need to find fun topics to study till then or else he's going to grow up hating HS :(

.

Start now and spread it out.

[Sahamamama]

Exactly! We're doing ancients next year but I think I need to find fun topics to study till then or else he's going to grow up hating HS :(

 

Maybe this for a few weeks?

 

http://www.howfoodgrows.com/

 

With a little math, a little music...

 

http://hubpages.com/entertainment/build-your-classical-music-library

 

... some art and nature study...

 

http://handbookofnaturestudy.com/

 

... and a snuggly read aloud?

 

http://www.memoriapress.com/curriculum/first-grade-read-aloud-program

 

That's a full day!

Edited March 24, 2016 by Sahamamama

[shinyhappypeople]

I totally ignored my own advice yesterday and sat with my younger daughter and forced her to push through her "exhaustion," partly because we had a packed schedule and I didn't have time for nonsense and partly because I was confident it was "exhaustion" (complete with airquotes) and not the real deal.  I sat with her and she lived and did fine with her assignment.

[angela in ohio]

Two of mine went through this phase.

 

You said there aren't friends around, but are there any other interactions with school-aged children who might be modeling this attitude? What about TV shows (most show school as a bore or something to be complained about)? Sometimes it isn't really something they feel, but an attitude habit they pick up and repeat.

 

The next thing to check is whether it ever works. If there have been times when his actions got him less work, then he will repeat that pattern. At that age they will strike out twenty times if they think they have one chance of getting away with it. Makes no sense to a logical person, but little kids aren't so great with statistics. :D Just making sure that he never, ever gets a lesser work load because of his actions will help, though you might have to be consistent for a long, long time to see results if there has been any inconsistency in the past.

 

After that, it depends on the kid. I had one who you could reason with. I asked her if she meant it, and she realized it was just a habit she had picked up. I reminded her and she worked to get rid of it herself. Then I had one who needed a bit more of a "gentle" nudge, and I had to pile the work on when he did this until it wasn't worth it to him to act out.

 

We tried to always present school work as a privilege in the way we spoke about it, like they were lucky kids to get to have mom take her time and our family spend our money to educate them well. That helped a lot, too, to stop anti-work attitudes.

[mamakven]

Thanks!! We did this yesterday and he LOVED it!!

Is he motivated at all by video games?

 

My kids have been playing Prodigy Math (https://www.prodigygame.com/referral.php?referralCode=7A1E6A3262C4&referralName=Crystal%2BGracioso&referralOrigin=link) since November and they love it. I love that I can set their assignments and give them specific things to work on. They love that it's basically a video game. They are the character of a wizard and they have quests and whatnot to complete. They engage in "battles" and in order to fight, they have to answer math questions. Brilliant.

 

So you can use it as a reward to entice him to get his school work done. AND...BONUS! He's doing math review AT.THE.SAME.TIME!

 

Seriously. I could kiss the developers. My kids beg to play and often willingly use their allotted daily tablet tags to play instead of playing Minecraft...this AFTER I've already let them play for 30 minutes.

 

It's Grade 1-8, and it will assign a grade level to your child after a quick diagnostic tool. But like I said....you can go in there and choose specific math topics to give to him. There's a huge list.

 

And...it's free. (Paid membership gives the player more in-game options...more pets to catch, better costumes to wear...etc. But it doesn't affect the education aspect of it).

 

So I definitely would suggest giving it a try.

[Raising Little Shoots]

"If you are too tired to do school right now, you will need to go lay down on your bed for an hour and take a nap." Usually only takes once per child in my house!

 

 

Love this :)