Letting school be easy?

[Clarita]

DH is going to defer to whatever I think is best and he's not actually unhappy with the education that I give DS7.

The other day I told DH that largely we are done with school stuff in an hour (this with typical first grader dilly-dally) and if DS7 is super focused then it's closer to 30min. Adding in fun stuff (science and history) then an hour and a half with dilly dally. DH was concerned that we are not challenging DS7 enough.

According to school standards he's ahead in all subject areas; he could write a bit more, but his knowledge of writing mechanics is ahead (just not interested in the actual act of writing). I've accelerated him when he asked to be accelerated (via I'm bored or can we move on...). He's really happy with the way things are going. 

Do I or should I give him more work or accelerate him more? Thoughts.

[KSera]

At this age, my answer to this would depend a lot on kid. Does he seem to have any ADHD or other tendencies that would make sitting for longer than that difficult? If so, I keep on as you are for now. If not, given my experiences with some of my older kids, I would probably be looking to add some thing that would be a little bit difficult for him. Heck, even if it’s a hand craft or some thing like that. I think I did a disservice by not making sure there were some things my gifted kids had to struggle with when they were younger. Made it a lot harder for them to accept that that’s normal once they got older, and anything that took extra work and effort they just assumed they were bad at and didn’t want to do.

[Clarita]

10 minutes ago, KSera said:

I think I did a disservice by not making sure there were some things my gifted kids had to struggle with when they were younger. Made it a lot harder for them to accept that that’s normal once they got older, and anything that took extra work and effort they just assumed they were bad at and didn’t want to do.

That was actually what my husband was thinking.

[Rosie_0801]

I'd probably add meal prep. It takes a long time to learn to cook and a seven year old can be put in charge of salads and home made dressings without requiring much supervision. It adds to the daily grind but in a different way to the bookwork, and is another area where there is room for critique but they can see, or rather taste, for themselves instead of having to take it on trust.

[lmrich]

What is he doing the rest of the time? 

Personally, I would want more time - maybe an hour in the morning and 45 minutes in the afternoon of directed school time. You will want to increase both as he gets older. The directed school time could be listening to you read aloud or take turns reading. 

Not that this is your kid.... but I am seeing so many children who have poor fine motor skills. Working on a handcraft is a great idea. I wish more kids would cross stitch. It is super easy but teaches so many skills that carry over to just being careful and mindful. 

[Rosie_0801]

Handicrafts are good. I actually made my daughter learn to spin when she was maybe 12 because learning to read was long enough ago that she'd forgotten that she could work at something long enough to achieve it. 

[Clarita]

58 minutes ago, lmrich said:

What is he doing the rest of the time?

Play, reading, we go to the library, museums and other enrichment things too. The charter school we homeschool through has a class day (half day) where they do enrichment stuff with the kids (this semester he's doing lego/STEM stuff and soccer/outdoor play). In addition, we have a PE class, piano and during the spring baseball.  

@Rosie_0801 know that I'm liking all your suggestions I'm just not allowed to like emoji your comments.

[wendyroo]

Most of my kids have found math to be pretty easy (even as I accelerated them according to their abilities), so I added in Problem Solving as a subject so they got daily practice working on problems that took effort and perseverance. At that age we used Balance Benders, Logic Safari, and Tin Man Press Enrichment Packets.

[Lucy the Valiant]

My own kids have thrived on a balance of "easy" / "middle-ish" / "challenging" areas of study / activity. 

(And then as they grew older / into their teens, they also benefitted from a format balance as well . . . 1 online class, 1 self-study subject from a book, 1 area where they met with a tutor / mentor & discussed, 1 live "class" that met weekly or so (etc / mix and match as opportunities & kids' interests allow) . . . if the kid is able to self-assess, that's SUPER helpful in putting together a weekly picture. In my own little homeschool, this takes us a month or so at the beginning of each year to shake out . . . "Oh, mom, this book is WAY too easy / moving too slowly . . . uh, I'm completely lost on this other one." (Etc) But it's been worth the front-end work to research & implement those balances. YMMV, of course. 🙂

 

Editing to add a big YES to handcrafts, outdoor skills if possible, meal preparation, home routine maintenance. It's SO GOOD for kids to know how to DO house things. ❤️

 

Edited January 25 by Lucy the Valiant

[FreyaO]

How about a second language? It's time consuming, useful, can open up life experiences. 

[philomama]

You start off by saying that you do 30-60 minutes of school stuff a day. But it seems that another way of describing it is that you only do 30-60 minutes of *math and English* a day. I think the issue boils down to what counts as "school stuff".

Analogy: I'm an academic. When I lived in England, we were asked to track how many hours we spent on different components of our job. Figuring out how much time you're doing research (at least as a philosopher) is an essentially impossible task. If I'm sitting at my desk, writing a paper or working out ideas, that obviously counts. If I'm having a meeting with a philosopher I don't know to discuss our work, that obviously counts.  But I do a lot of my best thinking either on a walk or in the bath. If I have an hour long bath and come up with a new paper in the process, was that research time? Was that a relaxing bath? If I'm talking philosophy with my husband (also a philosophy professor), is that research time? What if we're lying in bed when we do it? If you never "turn off" thinking  about philosophy, and it’s just integrated throughout your day, there simply aren't sharp boundaries between what is and isn’t doing research.

Similarly, for an inquisitive homeschooled kid in a super enriching environment, I think the line between "school stuff" and not school stuff is blurry.

If "school stuff" essentially excludes "fun stuff", then I’d scrap that as an idea of what’s important. Science, history, reading, museum trips, piano, STEM enrichment… definitely all educational, all valuable. If that’s what’s making up the rest of his day, it seems just right for a first grader.

At the same time, I think everyone else’s suggestions of other valuable activities are great!

[SFisher]

I would put my vote in for adding challenge… but not necessarily acceleration.

Find something that requires work to get better at… the previous ideas are good - food prep, hand crafts, etc.

things that require tinkering could be good… snap circuits, marble run. Learning to try something and see if it works, but not flip out if it fails is good for them.

Another suggestion would be to have him put in practice at something he’s average at. Swimming lessons were good for my older son in this regard. 

My older son is/was very self motivated to learn academic skills. He reads an enormous amount in his free time (which we encourage). When we homeschooled 1st grade I would observe and ask him what he wanted to learn about, then we’d find a way to learn about that topic - books, videos, projects, going places, etc. 

my younger son is strong in creative expression… he will easily spend an afternoon drawing, making stop motion, making comics, making a play with his brother. Having a window of time reserved for this is helpful… sometimes I get involved and other times I don’t, but I am available to help and provide art supplies.

Don’t forget play is learning… playing with siblings & neighborhood kids is building all sorts of skills. 

[EKS]

I think it's important for kids to be reasonably challenged in their lives.  When we homeschool, it is fairly simple to float academics to an appropriate level.  What I mean by "appropriate" is not having every last thing be super difficult, but having at least some things require thought and work to master.

So, yes, for a first grader, I'd want there to be about 30 minutes to an hour each day where he was having to stretch a bit cognitively.  If it's all easy, I'd definitely kick it up a notch.  That doesn't necessarily mean using the next grade's materials.  It might mean using more meaty materials.

[8filltheheart]

I'll be the lone voice and say that I would not add any more academics within my own family.  An hr per grade level at that age is all I have ever done.  It has not hindered my kids' progress at all.  If anything, my kids are very internally motivated.  Challenge does not need to come in terms of adding academics.  It can be things they naturally encounter in playing and struggling with a gross motor skill (sports, climbing a tree, building a fort, etc).  It can be as simple as working through a book that they are determined to read but is beyond their normal reading level.   Fiilling their time with things that they have to figure out......self-regulation and self-entertainment are skills that are severely lacking in the vast majority of the human population today.  Life offers a world of opportunities to explore.

What we did do with a child who was resistant to effort was add a musical instrument when she was 8.  Ironically, it was also not a real challenge, but it was something she enjoyed and has stayed with long-term (now with the desire to pursue long-term.)

 

[Clarita]

Thank you for everyone weighing in on this. I spoke further with DH about it (and summarized some of the suggestions on here). He admits he was probably bringing in some of his own childhood disappointment baggage in. Also he wasn't seeing the hobbies as something that could be challenging as well. 

I think sometimes it's hard for us who had our education through public school to realize all that school can be (or that school can be rigorous and enjoyable at the same time). 

[Kanin]

In public school, I'm seeing so many kids with organizational issues.

First grade isn't too young to have kids do things like put their worksheets away in correct folders, put books away in a specific place on a shelf, etc. I'd make sure to do those things daily, and you can bump it up as he gets older and has more stuff to manage. 

It would also be cool to teach him to use a simple checklist, and that could translate to using checklists in the future, and also using a planner to keep organized.