Homeschool World Forum

My boys are young still (almost 4 and 5) and we don't do school for very long each day. A good chunk of our school is very active since I know that boys are very wiggly and need to move and run. That being said, I have one son who would sit for a year if you asked him to simply because Mom said. My other son looks like he's going to die if he is asked to stand in one area for more than ten seconds. I know they are young, its not as though they are 12 and 13, but I know one is more wigglier (is that a word) than the other and probably always will be. My question is this. I want the boys to be able to be boys and use that natural energy they have been given. However, there is also a time and place for sitting and listening. How do I know how much that is? By following their cue, my one son would never sit down...but I feel that I need to teach them there is a time and place, if you know what I'm saying. I guess what I'm really asking is how do I know what is "I need to move" and what is just plain disobedience? Does this make sense? I want to have an active great fun time...advice anyone?

At 4 and 5 I wouldn't put too much effort at all in getting them to sit still and listen.
I had the same issue as you - one wiggle worm, one quiet child. We started every day with the same routine - a variety of activities available to keep hands busy when ears need to be open. The wiggle worm did much better when his hands were occupied with something that related to the topic (i.e. butterflies - materials for building a butterfly out of a toilet paper tube. Reading Charlotte's Web - string, chalk and black paper to form his own web).

For active teaching - the Socratic method tends to work, too. Opening a discussion and asking questions, expecting participation rather than receiving the information.

Thanks Lily for the advice. Its great to be able to come here to get other people's input!

It helps to teach the wiggle worm to do something with his hands while listening. Knitting, finger weaving, even just making crochet chains, or string pictures (cat's cradle). When you are reading to them, let the wiggly one sit in you lap and massage parts of his body, arms, leg, head.Sometimes they just need some more physical stimulation, It's worth a try.

Good idea, momo3. Thanks for the advice!

It's been an on-going process. I needed my wiggle-worm to learn to obey me at age 2 for safety reasons, so I spent a lot--a lot--of time forcibly holding her still on my lap. I would only do it for a couple of minutes at a time, but it was every 5 minutes all day on a lot of days.

I needed to restore order when she was 4 so that I could deal with 3 kids by myself. So I withheld the privilege of starting Kindergarten curriculum for an extra 4 months "until she learned to sit still on her chair."

By the time she and her quiet big brother were 9 and 10, I noticed that they had switched roles. She had become so devoted to playing the piano that she was getting chunky (she'd always been a stick) and he was eating so little and exercising so much I feared anorexia (I was probably an undiagnosed anorexic teen). So I would "assign" him to sit down and read for 30 minutes, and her to go outside and do a running and jumping activity, a few times every day. (I also had to forbid him from doing exercises for exercise's sake, and insist that he eat certain amounts of food every week.)

Ramona