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How functioning student and board in class.

post #1 of 13
Thread Starter 
How do you, as a parent, and how does your child, as the student, handle when they start getting board in class.

I am seeing this becoming more and more of an issue with DD. I saw it last year with her repetitive home work that she already had down and now I am seeing it with the videos on her home school math curriculum. It's math and, at some point she is going to require instruction from the video, but she is board and tuning it out.

How does/did your child handle it? Our district got rid of our GT program.
post #2 of 13

Ds is too young to have this yet but as a teacher there are several things you see from students who get bored with the material. Some end up acting out and some zone out. When I was working with my music students and they hit the ok got it phase, I always had an extra "higher level" activity they could do that was a step or two beyond what we were at and let them try to brainstorm answers. Of course that is easier to do in the encore classes. In a classroom I would think the teacher should have that same concept. If they are already to the point of doing multiplication up to 10 why not let them try by 12's 13's or so. I was one that got stuff fast and I was very excited when I could get the bonus work to try. Did I always succeed at those? No. But I was challenged to critically think more. Plus switching up how it is approached helped me.
 

post #3 of 13

I think there is a difference between being bored and being inattentive. Everybody gets bored, some things simply are not exciting. However, being inattentive is not always an option, and I think people do it because it's easier than trying to focus on something you have no interest in. I believe that attentiveness is a learned behavior, and like most student behavior it is something that is learned at home first. How is she at focusing on things at home? Is she able to focus on her homework or chores, can she listen well during conversations or does she go off in her own world, etc. I would try to work on it home in preparation for the new year. When she is doing something I would insist on her giving it her full attention. Try to limit distractions and multitasking until she is able to handle one thing at a time without tuning out.


Edited by Karen1985 - 7/10/12 at 9:42am
post #4 of 13
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Karen1985 View Post

I think there is a difference between being bored and being inattentive. Everybody gets bored, some things simply are not exciting. However, being inattentive is not always an option, and I think people do it because it's easier than trying to focus on something you have no interest in. I believe that attentiveness is a learned behavior, and like most student behavior it is something that is learned at home first. How is she at focusing on things at home? Is she able to focus on her homework or chores, can she listen well during conversations or does she go off in her own world, etc. I would try to work on it home in preparation for the new year. When she is doing something I would insist on her giving it her full attention. Try to limit distractions and multitasking until she is able to handle one thing at a time without tuning out.

Now that is an interesting thought. If she is interested in the subject, she can hyper-focus, but if she isn't interested or if it is something she deems as too easy, we struggle. Last year she struggled when her teacher sent home, in her homework packet for the week, three different versions of alphabetizing her spelling words. And, I suppose, in some ways, I cannot blame her.
post #5 of 13

If it's because she finds the material too easy, there's a simple solution - teach her harder material. There's no reason you can't move her along faster if she is learning it faster. (Assuming you are home schooling).  She doesn't need to do repetitive homework IF she knows the material.

post #6 of 13
I can't say either of my kids ever complained of being bored. The material in elementary school was VERY easy for my DD especially before she got put into a gifted program. Yet she STILL never complained to me of being bored. I know I've told the story 100X how her 3rd grade teacher told me that sometimes she felt like if it wasn't for my DD, she'd be wasting her time in class. She'd be asking questions and all the students are staring off or doodling and my DD was excitedly waving her hand in the air dying to answer the question. So in her case, even though the material was easy for her and she knew it, she still enjoyed the educational process, so I'm not sure I agree that that is always the problem. My DS was probably not quite so "exuberant" about education as my DD, but he STILL never complained about being bored. Now I'm sure that there WERE times both of my kids were bored.....everyone is... but they're not really complainers by nature, and they probably knew mom would have no sympathy, and .....I don't know....but they just didn't complain.

I guess perhaps different personalities handle things like boredom differently, but that wouldn't stop me from making my child study or do it. Even the spelling homework you talked about, I might have complained about it to DH, but I would have NEVER told my child I agreed. I would have been more of a "suck it up" type attitude (w/ more mom appropriate words obviously than "suck it up" wink.gif) It's all part of children learning the universe doesn't revolve around them (a concept even my older kids still haven't fully grasped) and that sometimes we have to do things we don't like or enjoy. I do agree with Swishina that you can certainly go through the material at a rate that she enjoys and speed it up if she grasps a concept easily, but that doesn't sound like the problem you're having.

Sorry that's not much help. So you''ve decided to go the home school route this fall? I hadn't heard you'd made a final decision.
post #7 of 13
I can't say my kids have ever been bored either, but their teachers ave been good about giving hem extra work to do.
post #8 of 13
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by aliadam View Post

I can't say either of my kids ever complained of being bored. The material in elementary school was VERY easy for my DD especially before she got put into a gifted program. Yet she STILL never complained to me of being bored. I know I've told the story 100X how her 3rd grade teacher told me that sometimes she felt like if it wasn't for my DD, she'd be wasting her time in class. She'd be asking questions and all the students are staring off or doodling and my DD was excitedly waving her hand in the air dying to answer the question. So in her case, even though the material was easy for her and she knew it, she still enjoyed the educational process, so I'm not sure I agree that that is always the problem. My DS was probably not quite so "exuberant" about education as my DD, but he STILL never complained about being bored. Now I'm sure that there WERE times both of my kids were bored.....everyone is... but they're not really complainers by nature, and they probably knew mom would have no sympathy, and .....I don't know....but they just didn't complain.
I guess perhaps different personalities handle things like boredom differently, but that wouldn't stop me from making my child study or do it. Even the spelling homework you talked about, I might have complained about it to DH, but I would have NEVER told my child I agreed. I would have been more of a "suck it up" type attitude (w/ more mom appropriate words obviously than "suck it up" wink.gif) It's all part of children learning the universe doesn't revolve around them (a concept even my older kids still haven't fully grasped) and that sometimes we have to do things we don't like or enjoy. I do agree with Swishina that you can certainly go through the material at a rate that she enjoys and speed it up if she grasps a concept easily, but that doesn't sound like the problem you're having.
Sorry that's not much help. So you''ve decided to go the home school route this fall? I hadn't heard you'd made a final decision.

No, we aren't home schooling, I just picked up a curriculum to keep her mind sharp this summer. She enjoys it, it moves along at her own pace. It just is the math videos are killing her. She hates them. I explained to her that the videos are in place of a teacher. I could let her skip them but at some point she is going to require these math videos to help her understand. I am finding explaining math, even at a third grade level is really difficult for me and DH, he is really, really good at math but he does it all in this screwy way that normal people just do not comprehend. So I don't want him explaining it to her either. Though, the more I see her do math, I am beginning to wonder if she isn't more like him than me in this area.

DD is not the kid that is answering in class ... even if she knows the answer. She is very quiet in class. I just am seeing some very big changes in her this summer. More independence. She just hates repetitiveness ... which I cannot blame her, I dislike it myself.

But you all have given me food for thought.
post #9 of 13

When my DD was being tested for her IEP, the Social Worker observed her in the classroom. At the time, the teacher was doing a whole class lecture on some subject and my DD was being very good - quietly sitting in her chair and sometimes looking at her teacher, but she was picking at her skin the whole time. The Social Worker asked, "Are you sure she isn't ADHD?" No, she isn't ADHD. She just has a bad habit of picking from OCD (something we're working on because it could lead to cutting or other destructive behaviors.) She was picking because she was bored.

 

My DD is pretty stand up about boring work. Over the years she has learned to do it quickly and get it out of the way so she can move on to more fun stuff. Math has been a particular problem this last year because DD is operating at a high school level in math and there she was repeating a year to strengthen her reading. Since DD missed the testing period to put her in the advanced placement classes, her teacher instead had her "tutor" kids in class who needed extra help.

 

As for the videos, I'd let her fast forward through the boring parts and/or allow her to do other work while they are playing in the background. There is no reason she has to suffer through a video on a topic she already knows.

post #10 of 13

You said they do not have a GT program, do they have any type of enrichment?  That really stinks if they have nothing.  dd9 is in enrichment for math and reading and it really helps.  She is still bored, reads a lot when she finishes her work.  Last year she was allowed to help other students when she finished her work. 

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