distracted student and tempting siblings

[Ksenia]

Hello every one! :wave:I have a son who went from reading beeing his favorite subject to beeing his least favorite. His current number one is math. My son is a first grader and learing how to read well. I understand it is hard, but most important things in life are! So what he would do is ask to go to the bathroom, then he needs a drink, then he has a story to tell me about a word we just read... and so on... Non of his requests are bad in themselves, but he is using them as a strategy to get out of finnishing his reading. What do I do? Do I lay off or do I press on? I feel that home schooling should be layed back, but I am not finding this stress free at all.

My home schooled son's younger sister and brother like to tease him with their toys or TV program. I am having a hard time finding something for them to do so that they would not distract my son. Any suggestions?

[Dianna]

Hello every one! :wave:I have a son who went from reading beeing his favorite subject to beeing his least favorite. His current number one is math. My son is a first grader and learing how to read well. I understand it is hard, but most important things in life are! So what he would do is ask to go to the bathroom, then he needs a drink, then he has a story to tell me about a word we just read... and so on... Non of his requests are bad in themselves, but he is using them as a strategy to get out of finnishing his reading. What do I do? Do I lay off or do I press on? I feel that home schooling should be layed back, but I am not finding this stress free at all.

Ksenia, what type of books are you asking him to read? I find that a lot of books titles as "beginner books " aren't really beginner books. It may be that he's not ready for the type of books you're asking him to read. Children (especially boys) tend to need a lot of practice with phonetically correct books before they progress to more difficult books. If you can give me an idea of what you're using, maybe I can make some recommendations. I would definitely back off at this point until you can determine what the problem is. Reading is too important to develop a dislike for it.


My home schooled son's younger sister and brother like to tease him with their toys or TV program. I am having a hard time finding something for them to do so that they would not distract my son. Any suggestions?

How old are they? Are they old enough to do simple chores while their brother is working? You may want to institute a "quiet play" rule during a specific time frame in your house. No TV, computers, electronic games, and other attention-grabbing things during the time your son is doing his work.

My youngest child can play quietly, or else I'll put her down to rest or give her a chore to do. Once she realizes that I'm not kidding, she'll quiet down. If she "accidentally" distracts the older ones, she knows she'll either have to rest, or do chores, so she tries her best not to be distracting. I'll also reward her for quiet play by periodically going to play with her, so that provides more motivation for her to be quiet. She'll also sometimes sit at the table with her brothers, pretending like she's doing "work", too. That's fine as long as she's quiet.

Another thing you can do is provide interesting toys (or play-doh, finger paints, etc) that can only be played with (quietly) while the older kids are doing their work. Rotate the toys so they'll stay "new" and that'll go a long way in keeping them entertained during your "school time".

I hope this helps!

Dianna

[Ksenia]

Hi Diana, :smile2:
Thank you for your time to respond, I really apreciate it!:biggrin2:
I am using horizons K the third reader. He has been improving consistently, but I don't like nagging him or thretening with no sweets or something. To be honest I am not sure of what I am doing half of the time. But some how he is learning! I had read some where that the first two years are trial and error...

With the two little ones my biggest challenge is that their brains are not on the same developmental level. Jessica is 3 and she is very bright. Wesley is every ones favorite, but he is behind, a slow learner, he is two. I feel like I am constantly juggling three different schedules at the same time not counting all the other responsibuilities. I will try having special toys for school time only and see if this will help.
Thanks, Oksana

[Dianna]

Oksana, boys tend to need to go a little slower with reading and writing than girls do (in my experience), so it sounds like you're doing fine. I'm not familiar with the Horizon readers. Maybe a change of pace would help. See if your library has Bob Books. Are you familiar with these? Scholastic sells them, and they progress at a great pace - the first ones starting with simple phonetic principles, and moving up from there. It may just be that he's bored with the Horizon, or that the Horizon is moving too fast for him.

I hope that the some of the strategies I mentioned will help with your younger children. Since they're so young, you may also want to consider have a fun video they can watch only during your older son's school time - something that wouldn't be interesting to your older son so it won't distract them. I hope others will jump in with other ideas. :smile2:

Warmly,
Dianna