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-   -   Child Led Learning and the Unmotivated Child (http://www.gentlechristianmothers.com/community/showthread.php?t=522872)

arelyn 05-17-2017 06:50 AM

Child Led Learning and the Unmotivated Child
 
DS1 LOVES to try new things and loves to challenge himself so letting him just set the pace of homeschool and follow his passions has goen great.

Enter DS2, now 6 yrs old. This guy tries somehting new once and declares "It's too hard." and will nto try again. I let him choose his own activity and he'll play with something for maybe 5 minutes and then pester me for a video. I redirect. Repeat. We do this all day long. The constant redirection and whining is wearing me down. Ocassionally he'll be happy playing legos or pretend but so much of the time he just follows me around being bored. If I try assigning a specific activity it's just all complaining even if I sit with him and try to make it a game. What do I do with this kid? He just seems to have no desire to learn anything!

mamacat 05-17-2017 07:14 AM

Re: Child Led Learning and the Unmotivated Child
 
My dd wasnt ready for any kind of more formal schooling until age 7.5. Will he play board games with older brother? Does he just want to watch entertainment type videos? Will he play outside? Does he like to be read to?

AngelaVA 05-17-2017 07:50 AM

Child Led Learning and the Unmotivated Child
 
Mine didn't really follow me around whining but she had no interest in anything remotely educational, not even being read to. I waited until 8 for the most part, it never got even remotely better so now I just try to make learning as painless as possibly and insist she do it. Some people just have lower motivation and energy than others. My child has some special needs that probably affect this, it's hard to know what is that and what is her personality.


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Soliloquy 05-17-2017 11:29 AM

Re: Child Led Learning and the Unmotivated Child
 
Any other issues? Any ADD symptoms? I have one child who did this. Following me around for hours asking me what fun thing we were going to do today. It was so draining when I HAD to do laundry and housework that day.

He's older now and it's very obvious he has ADD and a few other things. He is extremely resistant to me trying to teach him anything that's not his idea. If he gets interested in a topic, though, whoa, he becomes a master. His coop teachers and Sunday School teachers are blown away by his knowledge base. They try to give me credit and I have to tell them it's all him. Right now he's writing his own operating system (a replacement for Windows or Linux. I'm not kidding.). But about six months ago, I was really frustrated and worried because he hadn't latched on to programming yet. Now he spends hours a day in code. I do pull him away to read SOTW and LOF to him but he mostly pursues his own interests. Which led to lessons for all the kids on binary and hexadecimal. So his education is definitely outside the box but he's an outside the box kid.

That was rambly but I hope helpful.

mamacat 05-17-2017 11:50 AM

Re: Child Led Learning and the Unmotivated Child
 
Yes interest led can def. make all the diff. if you can figure out what it might be.

arelyn 05-17-2017 07:06 PM

Re: Child Led Learning and the Unmotivated Child
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by mamacat (Post 6084740)
My dd wasnt ready for any kind of more formal schooling until age 7.5. Will he play board games with older brother? Does he just want to watch entertainment type videos? Will he play outside? Does he like to be read to?

He likes board games and card games and being read to so long as he chooses the book. He is a tad obsessed with Ancient Egypt. And I wish he could play outside. He is that kid who needs outside and would live out there if we had a yard instead of a city street.

Soliloquy: Rambly yes but very helpful. I really needed to know that someone's child grew out of following them around like that and got self motivated to do something. And he is so like his uncle who has ADD it's scary!

MegMarch 05-18-2017 12:37 PM

Re: Child Led Learning and the Unmotivated Child
 
I was just invited into a FB group about gameschooling. I wonder if some of the info there would be good for your family? If you are interested, I can link you.

bananacake 05-18-2017 01:09 PM

Re: Child Led Learning and the Unmotivated Child
 
Lisa, I think we have the same kid :lol

I was going to say ADD, but I always suspect that with lack of focus and lots of whining :shifty My child with ADD learned to read at 6 1/2 or so (taught himself) and almost never has his nose out of a book.

I would agree with others also that he is young :yes But the whining is so tiring. I imagine other people will have better advice!

mamacat 05-18-2017 01:32 PM

Re: Child Led Learning and the Unmotivated Child
 
I dont know if this would be something he might be interested in https://allinonehomeschool.com/history-year-1/

sweetpeas 05-18-2017 03:07 PM

Re: Child Led Learning and the Unmotivated Child
 
I don't push/require school until older (since our state requires extensive reporting at age 8, I use that as my excuse, and, when Lina wasn't showing interest in much educational stuff by 7 1/2 or so, I used the "it's the law" excuse and gave her options of choosing what she's learning or I would. She didn't, so after some false starts, we settled on a waldorf-ish approach and it's working for her.

To me, the following me around whining is a separate issue. . . I'll point out the options they have (games, legos, draw, whatever . . . ) and if they keep whining and bugging me, they get the choice of helping me with whatever chores I'm doing (sometimes, especially that young, they happily DO join me in folding laundry or washing dishes or helping cook supper or whatever. That's a lot less likely to happen now at age 8) or figuring out something on their own. I don't consider myself a cruise director, it's not my job to "entertain" my children all day long.

arelyn 05-19-2017 03:28 AM

Re: Child Led Learning and the Unmotivated Child
 
We've never lived anywhere stateside long enough to register but both states that we may move back to have mandatory reporting at 6. Hence it seems like he should be doing something. At the same time maybe I need to think more outside the box. He likes cooking with me...that can be science and math. And I need to go redirect him from whinning at me and waking the nursing baby.

mamacat 05-19-2017 05:22 AM

Re: Child Led Learning and the Unmotivated Child
 
Sounds like you have your instinctive answer.Including him in what you are doing as much as possible by giving him tasks to do alongside of you.. If you are about to nurse the baby you could ask if he wants to choose a book to read together. If you can get library books about a variety of topics - even math principal books school is way covered

ctab 05-20-2017 04:47 AM

Re: Child Led Learning and the Unmotivated Child
 
If he is obsessed with Ancient history then I would start with that. You could do an ancient history course like Story of the World (or Story of Civilization or RC History, or Catholic Schoolhouse if Catholic). I think Jay Wiley may have developed science around history, but I'm not sure. But, you could also dive in and study about archeology. You can study art from that period as well. If he likes baking I would definitely see if he will cook and bake along side you and count ingredients and such (how many eggs have I put in, how many do I have now after adding one). Have him set the table, count out the needed plates, etc.

If videos are a problem, I would set video time to only certain times of day for a set amount of time. I find it helps with the whining for videos. While I believe in following children's interests, I do think some children will get into an unhealthy relationship with screentime if allowed. For me, I see it as part of my vocation to help them find a healthy balance to the screens can help them blossom instead of stunt their growth.

And, for what it is worth even my boy that loves school had trouble attending for longer periods of time. He turned seven, and that time greatly increased. He may just need time.

Lena O. 05-25-2017 07:40 PM

Re: Child Led Learning and the Unmotivated Child
 
If he's obsessed with Ancient Egypt, take that passion and run with it! Books, maps, videos, etc. Maybe that will plant a "learning is fun!" seed and eventually the rest won't be such a battle. One of my 10-year-olds wasn't ready for formal "sit down and focus" schooling until she was 7, but she loved to help me in the kitchen so I used that as a way to start teaching her some basic math and science, and I learned that she's a real science geek, so I was able to encourage that passion. Sometimes 6 is just a bit too young, and there's nothing wrong with that.


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