Bouncy Boy

[knitgrl]

Ds6 (almost 7) has a very hard time sitting still. He would much rather play legos or ride his bike than do school. Even at dinner, he has to get up from the table to bounce around the room periodically, because that's just too long to sit. He is able to sit and read comics for 45 minutes at a stretch, but that's completely different. lol. So, sitting at the kitchen table doing lessons with him is challenging, and not always fun. This morning, we started math, and he's half sitting, half dancing, getting up and playing with whatever he can put his hands on, and I had a burst of inspiration. "Do you want to try sitting on the exercise ball?" Yes, he did. And he sat on that and bounced and actually focused on the work at hand. It was the best math lesson we've had in a very long time. I know folks have brought this up before, and that is why I was able to pull it out of the recesses of my mind, but I mention it because maybe someone else has a bouncy kid, and they've never run across the idea. I can't believe how well it worked.

Edited August 19, 2020 by knitgrl

[rebcoola]

I remember those days.  MDD didn't sit and do a math lesson until like third grade.  When she was really young she would jump the answer 5+4=9 jumps.

[SilverMoon]

Yessss. ❤️ My oldest used a drummer's stool for a long time. His lower half could twist and wiggle to his heart's content. 

[Lori D.]

Some children absolutely require *movement* in order to be able to focus -- so your exercise ball is GREAT! Other movement ideas:  stand at a desk or table or counter top while working so they can jig and dance and wiggle about. Or, sit on a wiggle cushion on the chair, and/or have a heavy duty band or other "foot fidget" around the chair legs to keep the feet busy/moving while sitting.

Also, your child might like hand fidgets (little items to play around with in the hand while listening/working to help improve concentration) -- or even "chewy fidgets" (a plastic straw or plastic necklace or similar item designed to be chewed on to help with focus). Some simple and inexpensive "DIY" fidgets here.

[sweet2ndchance]

Ds7 often sits on an exercise ball while he does his schoolwork or listening to a read aloud or watching an educational video for school. He can bounce and wiggle and move to his heart's desire while still accomplishing what I think he needs to accomplish.

 

[knitgrl]

Thanks, Lori! The foot fidgets are intriguing -- the feet on all the children in this house seem to have minds of their own!

The only downside of the exercise ball is that dd5 thinks she needs to use it, too, and it really does not help her focus.

[Lori D.]

36 minutes ago, knitgrl said:

Thanks, Lori! The foot fidgets are intriguing -- the feet on all the children in this house seem to have minds of their own!

The only downside of the exercise ball is that dd5 thinks she needs to use it, too, and it really does not help her focus.

DS#2's favorite foot fidget was to lay upside down on the couch during read-aloud and flip the curtains with his grubby bare feet... 🤨

Pipe cleaners were an awesome, cheap finger fidget here. Also a broken length of jewelry chain, dog tag chain, hair scrunchies and those wide rubber band bracelets, a mini metal slinky, koosh balls and other squeeze balls/stress balls, a couple of magnets, "finger cuffs", etc. A small scrap of fur or silk is also a nice tactile fidget.

The rule here was that you were allowed to pick one item from the fidget basket, and if it was misused in any way (i.e. thrown at someone, put in the mouth, wrap around throat, etc.) it went away for the day (and went away for much longer if there was a repeat infraction with that particular item). "If you can't keep it in control, you lose the privilege of the fidget."

Edited August 19, 2020 by Lori D.

[Coco_Clark]

I had a super bouncy boy.  On top of his utter inability to stay still ever, he also had zero interest in book/table learning. 

So we played through all of kinder (6) the majority of 1st (7) and a good part of 2nd (8) grade.  Including:

Hopscotch to learn blends and words (put cards in the squares, read then jump).  See also hopping, skipping, snail walking, crab walking, tight rope walking, ect.

Jumping rope to learn to add, subtract, skip count.  See also, throwing or kicking a ball back and forth.  ALL math was oral or with blocks for this kid till 3rd grade.  

Playing hide and seek to find a word or the correct number to answer a math problem.

All the wonderful math games at educationunboxed.com

Writing done standing up on a white board (fine motor skills turned large motor) or on a sand tray with a finger or paint brush.

And all the crazy reading positions you can imagine (croutching on a chair leg, upside down, downward dog yoga poses) ect.

The chair band foot fidget helped here, exersize balls and hand fidget toys just distracted.  Ymmv.

[knitgrl]

8 hours ago, Coco_Clark said:

I had a super bouncy boy.  On top of his utter inability to stay still ever, he also had zero interest in book/table learning. 

So we played through all of kinder (6) the majority of 1st (7) and a good part of 2nd (8) grade.  Including:

Hopscotch to learn blends and words (put cards in the squares, read then jump).  See also hopping, skipping, snail walking, crab walking, tight rope walking, ect.

Jumping rope to learn to add, subtract, skip count.  See also, throwing or kicking a ball back and forth.  ALL math was oral or with blocks for this kid till 3rd grade.  

Playing hide and seek to find a word or the correct number to answer a math problem.

All the wonderful math games at educationunboxed.com

Writing done standing up on a white board (fine motor skills turned large motor) or on a sand tray with a finger or paint brush.

And all the crazy reading positions you can imagine (croutching on a chair leg, upside down, downward dog yoga poses) ect.

Oh, yes. We are familiar with these. Upside down is a favorite reading position in our house. Also slumped over a foot stool. My favorite is a kid suspended between two chairs. How do they even get into those positions?

The chair band foot fidget helped here, exersize balls and hand fidget toys just distracted.  Ymmv.

I think that would be the case here as well. Denise Gaskins mentioned these neat cuisenaire rod tracks on her blog. They are good for showing mathematics concepts, but ds thinks they are better as inclines for sliding the rods into the box. :-/

 

[Rachel]

A couple things in addition to the ball that work for my 8 year old are jumping jacks and exercise. We will frequently go for a walk or bike ride before starting school, not always but he definitely focuses better if we do. During school time if he starts getting distracted I will ask him if he wants to do some jumping jacks. He will do 25 or so and then get back on his ball. The breaks for movement really do help. 
 

I use to be skeptical of the ball too but it does help a ton!

[knitgrl]

2 hours ago, Æthelthryth the Texan said:

My ds has to stand- I mentioned in another thread: One, when he found out that kids in regular schools had to be seated at desks he was appalled! and two- that the yoga ball did not work here. By the end of a few days of him using it,  I wanted to imitate Jim in the Office episode where he stabs Dwight's Yoga ball with a pair of scissors. 

A friend of mine has mentioned her dd's public school uses something called wobble chairs. When I was in school we would all tip back in our chairs- guess the schools got tired of kids toppling over occasionally, lol. 

Yes, I can understand wanting to stab the ball. BUT - he WILLINGLY did three pages of math today!!! I usually have to cajole him pretty hard just to do two, or one and a half.....

Homeschooled kids do have interesting views of the world....when dd was 7, she said she felt sad for public school kids because they didn't get to learn Latin.

[Rachel]

20 hours ago, Æthelthryth the Texan said:

My ds has to stand- I mentioned in another thread: One, when he found out that kids in regular schools had to be seated at desks he was appalled! and two- that the yoga ball did not work here. By the end of a few days of him using it,  I wanted to imitate Jim in the Office episode where he stabs Dwight's Yoga ball with a pair of scissors. 

A friend of mine has mentioned her dd's public school uses something called wobble chairs. When I was in school we would all tip back in our chairs- guess the schools got tired of kids toppling over occasionally, lol. 

We went through 3 yoga balls in 2 weeks!  Our lab (8 or 9 months old at the time) got two of them though, he thought they were chew toys! 

The first one however was stabbed with a pencil by my own dear son. He wanted to see what would happen and was genuinely surprised that he ended up on the floor a minute later. I can laugh now, but I didn’t that day! I’d had that ball for 15 years with no problems.

We got to tour my nephew’s classroom during his open house last year. In a class for about 20 there were 3 different styles of wobble chairs. Only 4 desks were a normal height with regular chairs. I have no idea how that teacher taught with so many kids wiggling around. I can handle mine, because he’s just one kid. Even he drives me crazy with his moving around some days.