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Need help w 7-yr-old
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My youngest is 7 1/2. I need some things to occupy him while I work with his older brothers. We had LOTS of preschool activity bags, but those “are baby things” now. I have him doing Explode the Code and copywork. He also does a beginning typing program, practices the piano, and plays Reading Eggs and Math Seeds on the computer. Beyond that I’m stumped! He’s not reading well on his own…mostly easy readers and even then he wants help so I can’t assign him to read on his own. If I pull out Legos or blocks or playdough for him then slowly his older brothers lose focus on their work and end up playing with him. He refuses to be alone in a room. He does like to color so he does lots of that.
I try to avoid busywork and workbooks, but right now that’s what I’m leaning towards! Stuff to keep him busy while still learning that doesn’t require mom to sit and help. Does that exist?
Thanks for any help you can give!
This is a tough one. My DD8 was easy to keep busy. She’ll draw or colour or tie friendship bracelets or do needlepoint for hours. I find my son more challenging to keep busy when we can’t be running around.
Here are some things my 6.5 yo DS does:
Perler beads, loom knitting, Seterra (computer geography game – search it), mazes.
He is currently obsessed with the graphing pictures that I printed from here:
http://www.worksheetworks.com/math/geometry/graphing/coordinate-pictures.html
Colouring books like these: http://store.doverpublications.com/by-subject-coloring-books-design-coloring.html
He will sometimes do a word search or a jigsaw puzzle, but those don’t keep his attention long. I think I want to find some easy Sudoku puzzles and see if he enjoys those. (He is a numbers-oriented type kid.)
We do have a few workbooks that practice things like basic math facts, telling time, counting money. The dry erase ones are favourites, and I like them too because they can be done over and over.
I’m currently looking for handicraft projects that he will enjoy. I hope others who answer your post might have ideas.
Joanne
I read on here the other day about someone having her 8YO listen to audio books while he follows along with the actual book. Because my 8YO is not confident reading chapter books on his own, yet, I am planning to start this with him. It really sounds like a great idea, because I don’t have the time to read as much literature as I’d like.
Otherise, my 8YO last year was doing family subjects with us, MUS Beta, copywork, Rosetta Stone, typing, Sheppard Software (he learned states, capitals, and the countries in South America) and LOTS of nature study (that’s his thing.) Depending what you are doing for history as a family, are there any games or coloring sheets that would complement that study? My son doesn’t like to color, but he really loves board games.
Oh, any my 8YO just discovered Extreme Dot to Dot and he loves them. The workbooks on Amazon are about $10 each.
I was going to suggest file folder games or puzzles.
I wasn’t familiar with the graphing pictures until jmac linked to them, but they look good, too. Or maybe a geoboard or tangrams (sorry, no links to suggest).
Karen
Thanks, this gives me a place to start! He does all our family work with us…sits quietly and narrates with the best of them. It’s the times I am working one on one with another child or I’m cooking lunch or trying to correct papers or print up stuff for the next day, those are the times he needs quiet activities. I also need to spend some extra time with him helping him become a more confident reader.
My 7 yo does the Never Bored Kid book ages 6-7 level. This is her favorite “subject”. There are mazes, easy crosswords, dot to dots, look and finds, cut and paste and other activities. There are levels up to age 9.
She also does More.Starfall.com on the computer independently. It is $35 for the year per family, with no ads. The basic Starfall.com is free and would help with his reading skills. And she is learning Spanish, something I do not know, by watching the Salsa videos. The earlier ones are 15 min. The 200 level are 30 min. She does this on her own too. http://www.gpb.org/salsa/term/episode
Where do you find the 200 level for the Salsa videos?
They are on the next page, but are episodes 201-212 & are done a little differently than episodes 101-130 & last longer. They are free. She really likes them and tells me what words she has learned.
http://www.gpb.org/salsa/term/episode?page=1
I plan to have her watch them again with activities linked to here:
http://simplycharlottemason.com/scmforum/topic/have-you-used-salsa-spanish-episodes
Well, I feel pretty silly about now. I was just on that page and totally missed the 200 level episodes! LOL We have been watching the 100 level episodes. My 5.5yo loves them!
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