my 7 year old hates school!! what to do?

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  • August 28, 2009 at 12:50 pm
    pmsullivan
    Member

    I have four kids and three of them enjoy school, maybe not every subject but at least they like the majority.  However, my sever year old does not like to do any writing or reading or even drawing pictures.  He is a very smart child but would rather be outside or playing -not sitting down to do school.  My husband and i kinda joke and say if he was in school, they would request that he be put on medication.  His twin is so opposite and it;s hard not to compare.  I was going to do My father’s world with the whole family and add in some charlotte mason ideas.  But i am now questioning if maybe i should do something different for him–or maybe doing a 2nd grade type of curriclum from my father’s worldd.  Then of course i would be doing two programs but maybe that would be best–it looks like the Adventures MFW is more suited to his ability.Any thoughts/

    thanks

    pam

    August 29, 2009 at 12:36 pm
    happyathome
    Participant

    My 7yo daughter is not an academic child.  We have just taken it easy on her and let her play a lot and learn from the outdoors.  You can teach everything just from life until they are ready for book learning.  It, being the last few years of play, really helped this year when we upped the academics.  CM has been really good because of the short lessons.  Her attention span is growing, but I don’t let her get frustrated.  A really good book is, “Better Late Than Early” by Raymond Moore.  It helps me to remember that grade levels are artificial timelines of how a child performs.  I was feeling the pressure of that just afew weeks ago!

    August 30, 2009 at 4:24 pm
    HeidiS
    Participant

    I would highly recommend Better Late than Early by the late Dr. Raymond Moore. Boys are different than girls, learn at a different pace and need a LOT of physical outlets. Your son may just not be ready yet for the academic side of school. I had a son just like that and I bet I went through 4 teaching reading curriculums with him before I found the CM philosophy of reading good books. There were so many tears, and this boy was actually a joy, he just wasn’t ready for what I was trying to have him learn, even though his older siblings had been. We put away the curriculum, read out loud a LOT, and he did very basic copywork, a sentence a day, just to keep him in practice. We learned the phonograms using Spell to Write and Read flash cards, so he could sound them out, and I let him be. What he could join in, he did, he played with his lego a lot while the others were working, he colored, he did his math with me, we did nature studies, and literally, he didn’t read till he was over 9. When he did, he picked up Lord of the Rings and asked if he could read it. You could have blown me over with a feather- I was so shocked. It took him the better part of the year, but he read that book-and loved it. Now he is 21, still a joy, and loves to learn. Science and using his hands is still his favorite focus though:) I would suggest giving your son time to be who God made him, even though its hard with a twin ( I am one) and expose him to lots of literature on topics he loves, have him sit in and listen to your readalouds for history, give him non written choices to narrate what he has just heard, and I bet his love of learning will be restored.

    Heidi

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