Feeling Discouraged...Struggling w/ 6YO

[Jaimejac]

And yes, this is the same 6yo I posted about the other day having a breakthrough. And he did. He is doing really well with his reading and his attention span is increasing and he is showing a desire to do more school. That said, when he is not doing school, it is SO HARD to keep him occupied. I love MOTH and have read it several times and have a schedule in place. I have tried Julie's idea of stations, when he was 4, when he was 5 and even recently I went back to that post. But he doesn't want to do any of the activities I plan for him. He has a 30-minute educational computer time in his schedule, but he gets bored with that and says he's done after 10 minutes, and then he hangs around waiting for me to be done with his older brother so they can play. He has play alone time scheduled for him but he hates to play alone. He has audiobook time (which he is getting better at, but still sometimes says he's done early), and I've tried the Mommy tape which he didn't like either. He has a 30-minute educational TV time scheduled, whihc I often let go long just so I can have uninterrupted time to finish school with his siblings. It seems like TV is the only thing that will keep occupied for any length of time, but I don't want him to just sit in front of the TV all day. I am doing Bigger with his brother and there is so much good stuff there that I really want to enjoy it with this child, but I feel that so many days are a struggle because the 6yo won't stay occupied and then either starts getting into things he's not supposed to or whines about when it will be time to play with someone.

Here's what his schedule looks like:

8:00 Bible Time w/ me and his brother (from Bigger
8:30 Morning Time with me (rotating read-aloud, art, nature, music)
9:00 Right side of LHFHG
9:30 Computer Time
10:00 Play with brother
10:30 Educational show
11:00 Play alone time (or play with sister if she is done with her morning work)
11:30 now it's time to get ready for lunch
12:00 Lunch
12:30 Audiobook
1:00 Play with brother while I finish school with sister
2:00 Time w/ Mom helping me with laundry, then play some games while DS and DD have piano time and computer time
3:00 Everyone is free for an hour or so

Anyone have any tips?? I feel like I have tried everything.

Feeling Discouraged,
Jaime

[daybreaking]

Your post caught my eye, as I also love MOTH and use it to schedule our days. I now have a high schooler and a college student and we still use a schedule!

Here are a few thoughts, in case any of them might be helpful to you:

Could you flip flop the right side of LHFHG and computer time? That would break up his time without you, giving him a half hour with you, then a half hour alone on the computer, followed by another half hour with you, before having more alone time.

Could you move “educational show” to later in the day as a reward for following the schedule (and not allowing it if he hasn’t cooperated with the schedule)?

Could you extend audiobook time? We used audiobooks, moving to them once my children dropped their naps. I called it their “quiet time” and required them to stay in their rooms for one hour after lunch. I was able to find quite a few audiobooks that were an hour in length, so they knew, once the audiobook was done, their quiet time was done. We actually continued that until they reached high school and had more work to complete. They grew to love this time and I loved being able to have them exposed to more good literature! They often had favorites that they listened to again and again.

For implementing the schedule, I found with my children that consistency helped tremendously. You have a great schedule in place and if you stick with it, expecting your son to follow it, he eventually will. I would simply sweetly let him know the activities are non-negotiable. If he’s anything like my children, he will try to change the schedule to his liking. If you are anything like me, your heartstrings will be pulled, feeling like a mean mommy for enforcing it. I found out the hard way that it was better all around to insist the children follow what I’ve set up, despite their complaints. Eventually, it became second nature and everyone was more at peace when we stuck with it. It would even get to the point that, if I were off track, the children would remind ME of what was on the schedule!