My oldest boy doesn't like to sit long. Sitting through a meal? Ha! He is getting better, though, as he gets older. Still, he likes to be moving. All. day. long.
Spelling lessons at the table? Let's just say I've found that to be counterproductive. His whining, complaining, and moaning have led to a frustrated mama on more than one occasion over the past 3 weeks of homeschooling.
Hey, we live and learn, right? Homeschooling is a journey, I'm finding. And we just have to find what works best for our own children and family.
I came up with this solution to our "sitting" problem.
My oldest & middle son helped me make an alphabet mat. It sounds so formal... "alphabet mat".... jeesh. We just used some crayons and notebook paper, drew & colored a letter on each page, then taped them together for a mat to lay on the floor.
Now, when I say it's spelling time on the alphabet mat, I hear screams of joy (alternated with screams over who gets to go first). How do you spell success?
Jump to each letter! s-u-c-c-e-s-s
Alright, in this case, the spelling word was c-r-e-w. But you get the idea.
My newly-turned 7 year-old does the spelling words that we've chosen for the week. When it's my 4 year-old son's turn, I have him stand on the letter I call out and then say it's sound.
My 2 year-old also wants in to the action, so I ask him to stand on a colored letter - blue, let's say. Then we all cheer for him when he stands on yellow. Hey, just keeping it real. Gotta get him off the mat for the next boy's turn. And at least he's interested!
We also made a "math mat", same format as the alphabet mat only with numbers. I call out an addition or subtraction problem for my 7 year-old, a simple number-find for my 4 year-old, and a color-find for my 2 year-old. They love it.
Highly active boys need to be kept moving. Now, does anyone have any ideas as to how I can incorporate a mat into handwriting practice? Hmmm.... guess some things just have to be done sitting down. Darn.
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