"Can we play now?"

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  • mrsmccardell
    Participant

    How do you stop this question? My daughter asks this constantly and I’ve tried posting our schedule for her to see as well as explain that I’ll tell her when it’s time to play. Our schooling includes some therapy for her special needs and I think that is the main thing she’s complaining about but either way it’s frustrating me.

    Any thoughts? Thanks.

    Tristan
    Participant

    Well, if you’ve posted a schedule, answered them specifically, and stick to it, then I would begin giving consequences for repeating this question over and over. At my house depending on the child that consequence would be an extra copywork or math page, or sitting on a chair for 5 minutes (per question) once it is playtime while the other children go play.

    One thing that helps my younger ones is to be specific: “This morning we will do math, copywork, scripture memory and read one chapter of our history story and then it will be break time/play time.” Then check those things off the board as you do them so they see the countdown to playtime. Or “Playtime is at 10am. Here, this is what the clock will look like when it is playtime. Let’s put this paper clock up beside our real one so we can see when they match.”

    suzukimom
    Participant

    I agree with Tristan.

    One other possibility is to look into Workboxes…  It is a much more VISUAL way for the child to see what needs to be done.  We did Workboxes the first couple of years, and it totally stopped that type of question instantly.

    Jenni
    Participant

    How old is your daughter? I think I remember that your dc are younger, right? Anyway I think that age depends on how you’d proceed.

    I like the workboxes idea. We have also used a timer with some success. It’s easy to hear the tick-tick plus to see the minutes ticking away. The bell ringing is a great way to signal switching to something else or that it’s time to take a break. I agree with some sort of consequence for asking, but I think I would shy away from assigning more schoolwork. We are excited that our girls really like school and using it for punishment wouldn’t work for us. Maybe extra chores or just time-out/loss of privileges?

    Maybe an extra prayer for patience? 🙂

Viewing 4 posts - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)
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