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Getting children inspired
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Good evening ladies. My name is Morgan. I have a daughter that is 7 and just started to homeschool since January, she was in public school previously. She loves homeschool and likes picking what order we do her subjects in. However, I have a hard time keeping her motivated to finish anything if we have to continue work the next day from keeping our lessons short in CM style. I also have a hard time getting her to want to learn on her own. During my 2 year old nap time I usually have to sit with him so I like for her to do her reading to me then and art or handicraft or notebook pages or anything quiet at all. She doesn’t want any part of it. Only to watch the tablet. We start late in the day because the baby has to have his favorite cartoons on to sit and eat and I can’t pry here away from the tv till he is done and at nap time she doesn’t want to continue on her own. After nap time when my oldest comes home from public school she doesn’t want to continue then either. I’m not sure what we are doing wrong that our homeschool is lacking the motivation or excitement or something I’m not sure. Does anyone have any ideas on what I’m doing wrong how I can motivate her to want to do more or maybe she does enough in her short days? We use a loop schedule for all subjects. I have 4 categories main core subjects, Reading, specials( French, music, art, poetry), and extras (yoga, habits, pic study, timeline…All the others) We go one section to the next doing one subject from each category till our time runs out for lunch. we usually get one from each category done daily. Good days we can get 2 from each category. I try to combine subjects to make it easier as well. We do all the traditional CM subjects except grammer or spelling. She is making connections from our learning to real life but just lacks the want to to learn all she wants to do is play and watch/play tablets.
Welcome Morgan! First of all she is still quite young. Sounds like your schedule is spreading a feast and keeping Lessons short. (Sometimes you have to start with even 5 min to work on habit of attention till you’re up to about 10 min with a subject). Also at that age, the main things should only take about 45 min. (Minus little brother interruptions:) with interruptions and extra subjects maybe 2 hrs, easily spread thru the morning with breaks.
Sometimes when a child has been in school they need about a month off (with no formal lessons) per year spent in school to unlearn habits, relax, play and be a kid again, work on family life/rhythms.
Maybe during that time a tantalizing fun read aloud with snacks or at bedtime, lots of outside adventures and intentional togetherness.
One may want to use that time to set limits on or remove tablets/media per your families priorities and personal convictions. Ex only on the weekend or 15 min a day or only on movie and pizza nite or whatever)
Allow time and space to be bored and get creative. 🙂
Thank you so much heatherma for your response. Yes she is young I didn’t realize that at 7 some homeschool children are just getting started she has been in public school since pre k the kindergarten then half a year of first. It started off bad and kept right in. Councilors said she needed it. i finally trusted my mother instincts and removed her before it we wound up in court. However I will try hard to remove tv and tablets from her day maybe have dad take them to work with him so only during meals for the baby. Maybe I can break them into watching a bible story so they are learning too hehe. On the different note we started in January with SCM ancient egypt she loves the Bible stories not so much the history. And we struggle with getting her to want to do it. She tried hard and listens and participates does crafts, notebooking pages, lapbooks, we read from pyramid and other stories. She retains it but doesn’t want to do it. She is definitely not a history buff. However we just now got to our second term in the book. Is that ok? Are we terribly behind for her age? Does it even matter at that age? I was going to start her second year in September after we school through the summer. I don’t know what to do for history nwxt year. I was thinking about doing story of the world?
Glad it was a help:) no you’re not “behind”. Yes, Charlotte advocated for delaying formal lessons till 7. Depending on your daughter’s personality and learning style I wonder if the notebooking and lapbook pages are frustrating to her (busywork), esp if she’s into the picture books and activities. They are not necessary and can often be twaddle or busywork.
Personally, my young kids weren’t into some of the suggested books for that history module, so I actually combined the first 3 ancients times and didn’t use a “spine” or the famous men series…at those younger ages just couldn’t get into it. (My kids are now 12, 10, 2 and newborn any day now). Also once nice weather hits I have to really minimize what we do cause their minds are outside while their bodies are on the couch. So we do a lot of nature study, handicrafts and classical music or audio books on hot afternoons, sometimes walks or field trips etc and get them Outside.
One of the beautiful things about homeschooling is that you are free to change up what’s not working, pray for direction, teach the child not the curriculum – it is a tool not your master. Lots of wonderful ideas on this forum to search out.
Thank you once again! Maybe the pages and lapbooks are too much I may just leave them out since she often doesn’t do them or even ask to do them. She does love the books and activities and of course the nature study! That’s her favorite and the baby’s favorite too. I am so glad I am not behind. Where do you get your audio books from? Congratulations on your new baby!
🙂 thanks!
We’ve gotten some from Focus on the Family (fave is Chronicles of Narnia audio drama), Lamplighter audio dramas (they have some for the younger years too, best deal is to be part of their book club for discounts and free shipping and just put acct on hold from time to time), G.A. Henty audio dramas (for much older, I’d say 9/10+ min age…great for guys). Amazon, oldies but good ones like Antshillvania.
The library.
Also check out read aloud revival online, they will email you about deals on audio books to download.
Hi Morgan, welcome to SCM and home schooling!!
Remember that your daughter is still young. There is still plenty of time to get everything in that she needs. Also, remember that in a brick and mortar school setting a lot of the kids time is filled with busy work and “wasted time.” You don’t have to fill the same amount of time, you don’t have to do the same classes.
If she isn’t enjoying the lap books and such, don’t do it. We did one and it wasn’t for us. Let her draw a picture about what you read. Give her some clay to build with. Ask her to dress up as one of the characters (as best she is able with stuff around the house.
Don’t feel the pressure to be in a certain spot scholastically. It is okay to stop and take a summer break and restart in the fall. If you are planning a year round schedule make sure you take the breaks and don’t be concerned about being “caught up.” Last year we just need to recoup and work on some habits and try and regain sanity so we stopped our normal studies in February and took off until fall. It was much needed. My girls were 4th and 6th grade. They are no worse off for doing so.
As for history, choose books from the library (or from SCM’s, Sonlight’s, Ambleside or any other source’s recommendations). You can do lots of picture books and some chapter books, too. You don’t have to use a spine. I quit using the spine when my kids were younger. Now that they are older we will be revisiting the time periods and adding a spine back in.
I would definitely limit the screen time. Screen time seems to bog a brain down and then they don’t want to do anything involving thinking or creativity (in my experience). If you do make changes with the screen time, make sure you sit your DD down and explain that the rules are going to change. Maybe having a pre-planned time for a certain amount of time would make the change easier. We have during the summer made a chore chart of what was expected before any screen time was allowed and how much would be allowed. Computer, TV, anything with a screen counted for that time. They had a list of extras that they could do and earn some extra screen time (with a limit). Make sure she has plenty of other things to hold her interest and she will soon get used to it.
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