Schedule and time

When my kids were that age they spent about 15 minutes a day on math. I had them set a timer and when the timer went off they were done. Yes, you will cover enough math in a year. It is amazing how much they can get done if they know they have to give concentrated work for 15-20 minutes! Just remember that 15 minutes of concentrated work is worth more than half an hour of dawdling. 🙂

What if you don’t finish an entire lesson or copywork or the timer stops when you’re in the middle of reading a chapter? How strict are you with it? I tried the timer a couple times, and we kept getting interrupted. I felt like nothing was ever getting finished or my daughter was getting bored from having to work on/finish something we had done the day before.

What worked better for us was to work on a lesson, regardless of how long it took–unless she got frustrated. Then we would take a break and come back tomorrow.

IMHO, we were not finishing anything when setting the timer.

That’s my two cents! Faith 🙂

Hello again everyone.

OK. This is a big issue, and the very heart of the issue is attentiveness. Yours, and your child’s.

First things first–if you are watching your child and are certain he is working steadily and with perfect attention for the entire amount of time, and he still cannot complete his assignment in fifteen to twenty minutes, then you are assigning too much. You should only be assigning what he can reasonably do in the allotted time, PERFECTLY, with constant perfect attention. If it is copywork, and he cannot finish two sentences but is working steadily with perfect attention, then you change the assignment to ONE sentence. One sentence done with perfect attention will further your educational goals more than two sentences with dawdling, sighing and staring off into space. If it is math, you shorten what you expect to be done in the lesson. Be creative–if it takes too long to write out problems, write out a few, and if he gets them all done, let him do the rest orally. Don’t assign problems he doesn’t need. Find little bits of time throughout the day to reinforce what you do–for example, my sons had a hard time totally memorizing all math facts in just fifteen minutes of writing a day–so we drilled math every so often during the day. This is easy with math facts, as you can easily call out “What is 5×4?” as you drive, walk or do dishes together. If your student is doing well, then just don’t assign every problem on every page. I use MathUSee, and if my kids get everything right on the A page, they don’t have to do the B or C pages; likewise, if they do everything right on the D page, they only have to do the word problems on the E and F pages. Use your curriculum as your tool to meet your goals, and not as a slave driver.

If the child is using perfect attention and not getting done as much as you want, you can do a couple of things–schedule more sessions (which may mean cutting something else back) or revise your expectations. Perhaps right now your child just cannot do more, and he needs some time to mature and build skills before moving at the pace you want. I would really recommend AGAINST lengthening sessions in young children. In my experience, this is the death knell of perfect attention. You don’t HAVE to use a timer–I don’t unless my kids ask or unless I am doing “attention therapy” described below, but we keep an eye on the clock anyway, and I have already taken the issue into consideration when I gave them their assignments–I don’t give them more than they can do. Fortunately as children get older and more mature, they can extend the times they spend–my teens can work steadily with attention now for 30-40 minutes without fatigue.

OK. The other issue is what I suspect, that the child is NOT devoting perfect attention to his assignment. If this is the case, the WORST thing to do is to extend the time, push the child to work longer once attention has been lost. Lost attention is FATAL to the habits you want to instill. If you are having attention issues, you are needed right there by that child as he works. The VERY SECOND his attention wanders, pull that book away. He is done for now. Move on to something else. However, and this is key—later, come back to it. When he WOULD have gotten a break, or free time, then instead he has to sit and pull out that assignment and work on it again. If his attention wanders again, change to something else–if you are done with other school assignments, chores work wonders here–he does a chore and comes back. Brother or sister is playing now, and he has to give his attention to his assignment. You can sorrowfully say, at this point, how you wished he was playing and having free time, but because he is not keeping his attention on his work he has to get done what you have prayerfully decided he ought to be able to do in the time frame. (And you do have to be realistic in this, and when you are working on this intensively you might want to shorten what you do and then slowly increase as attention increases)

To get more done, try oral drilling, oral answering, Saturday sessions, a session in AM and one in PM, etc if necessary.

The timer really comes in handy for me when we need to do “attention boot camp”–which I do anytime I notice signs of dawdling while working. I’ll set their assignment, tell them what I expect to get done–CORRECTLY and neatly–insist on that, lol! and then set a timer. If they can get done before that, then they can have a free time break. If they do not, and wander, take away the assignment, turn off the timer and move to another task, and then come back to the one. Now, you do want to limit how many times you come back-you don’t want to still be alternating chores and that math assignment he still hasn’t done at bedtime! So use your judgment, but there should be a definite free time loss that he can notice. So he learns that if he works steadily and keeps attention, he gets free time. If he does not, he has to keep working in short bursts.

Now, THERE IS NO BEHIND. Erase that word. 🙂 Each child is individual and unique and all cannot always keep to the pace that the curriculum manufacturer or your inlaws or whoever expect. That does not mean he is behind. He is himself. If you worry, find creative ways to reinforce the learning without sitting-at-the-table-holding-a-pencil fatigue. But in my experience, most children, upon laying good habits of attentiveness, really begin to grow in what they can do and understand. This habit is a very key to intellectual development, and IMO is more important even than natural ability or intelligence. By which I mean, a child who does not manage to get past algebra in high school, but DOES have the habit of perfect attention, will likely be at least as successful in life as a child with greater natural ability who ran through calculus but who dawdles and daydreams and cannot focus. I know this, actually, from painful personal experience. 🙂

JenKeithley said “I not only love the great advice you ladies and gentlemen offer, but I also love the graciousness of the posts. THANK YOU!!!!”

…..I second that. I was just telling my husband this very thing the other night, explaining why I am so drawn to this forum (compared to a couple others).

Sorry to go off subject.

Bookworm – I was a little hesitant to read your latest post due to the fact that I was just wanting to “quick check in”, but I’m glad I stayed and read it – lot’s of GREAT advice and such wisdom….you must be close friends with Sonya! 🙂