Just thought I'd touch base with you all about how your kids approach school. The other night on TV someone was comparing his son to his daughter in how organized for school.

I myself have noticed that the girls are more into practicing spelling words, and working on homework. My son HATES spelling and gets his homework done as quick as he can so it's not hanging over his head. Not always doing his best.

It also seems like he is much less interested in making his writing legible. Meanwhile the girls are making "bubble" letters and all sorts of fancy stuff.

Any ideas how to make my son more engaged in learning? Does he need a different approach or is it just a phase?


Andi
g/b/g
7 yo triplets
in 1st grade

I used to teach first grade. Here are things that I used to tell parents and have tried myself.

Spelling:
Type the words on the computer
write them in shaving cream or sidewalk chalk outside, then pull out the hose to play and clean
magnetic letters on fridge while I'm cooking

Math facts (flash cards are boring every night)
Play war, however, flip two cards over at once. You have to add/subtract/multiple in your head first and the higher number still wins
Get a beach ball and write one number 0-9 on each colored section. Then play catch. When you catch the ball look at the colors your two pointer fingers are touching. Add those numbers.
Math Baseball on the Leapster
There are also websites that will make math fact worksheets. We do these once a week for a change.


If handwriting is an issue - I tell my son I will look over his work and pick three words/numbers that need to be neater. That way you're not pointing out every mistake. You could reward him (with something like extra computer or Wii time) if it's neat enough that there is nothing that needs improvement.

That's all I can think of right now. Hope this helps.

Liz

Adam-12
Jake-10
Andrew, Luke, and Kaitlyn-7

I have 2 of each and I cannot say there is one gender that "likes" or is "better at" school. One of my girls gets mad when we are all done with her homework. The other girl hates to do homework but has realized we are not giving in, so she finally does it without complaint. One of my boys isn't really excited to do home work, but will do it without complaint. the only thing we really have a problem with is writing his spelling words. My other son HATES IT!!!!!! If it weren't for the social part of school I would have to sight to get him to go everyday.

Here are some thing we do for spelling...

Rainbow spelling seems to be a favorite in my house. Pick a number (I usually make them do 5 times) I write the word down, then they trace it 5 times each time with a different color. This does 2 things. It helps them remember the word, and they are tracing my handwriting which is very neat.

I make word search puzzles for them with www.spellingcity.com and they love that.

ABC Order is another thing they like to do, because it is actually very easy for my kids. They only have to worry about the first letter of the word...if there is more than one that starts with the same letter, they get to pick which one goes first.

Also, we quiz them every night and they only words they have to write is the ones they got wrong.

Also, I have used the teacher, with their permission, at times. There were about 5 days in a row that I had to fight with one of my girls about doing homework. Finally I got sick of it, told her to put her homework away and I wrote a note to the teacher explaining the situation and asking her to keep my daughter in from recess so she could complete her homework. I have not had a problem since then. They don't want to disappoint or upset the teachers.

Dawn

Mom to Samantha, Jeremy, Paige and Christian

Born 12/12/03 @ 31w 2d



http://lovinglifewithquads.blogspot.com

You might really enjoy reading the book, "Why Gender Matters." It was written by a doctor who looked askance at the "nurture vs. nature" debate.

In particular, he questioned a result on study: babies prefer the human face to black and white or other mobile shapes. He questioned this because he knew that the rods and cones in the human eye are constructed and aligned differently in males than in females. The male eye focuses much more strongly on movement than the female eye. Given this fact, he went back and pulled all of the data on the study. Yep. Out of 20 very young infants, 17 of them preferred the picture of a human face.

Of course, in that study, 17 out of 20 of the babies were...female.

He was so interested in the anomaly and how everyone has been told to treat children the same/how we've adjusted our educational procedures/etc., that he studied all of the physical differences between the two and wrote this wonderful book setting forth why boys and girls learn differently and how to keep them (both genders, thank you) engaged and loving learning.

For me, I loved the eye-opener that this book provided. For example, I first read this when my babies were about 2. Girls develop fine muscle coordination first, then large muscle coordination; boys develop large muscle coordination first, then fine muscle coordination. Boys prefer dark colors; girls tend to prefer bright colors. Boys prefer "motion" while girls prefer a "pattern" and people's faces. So, when your tiny son picks up a black crayon and scribbles back and forth and back and forth and back and forth, he is using one of his favorite colors and he is drawing...motion.

I was shocked to hear one of the teachers say to a little boy, "Oh, honey, let's use this pretty color and draw something nice." He had just been told that his favorite color was not pretty and that his drawing was not acceptable.

Oh, I know. TMI. Sorry. But, it's the first time I've posted in probably three or four months... I guess I just couldn't help being my verbose self!

The book is definitely worth reading. A real eye opener into what is happening with boys in the educational system.

Cat w/3 Kittens
Caidan, Carina and Caeleigh
Born at 31 weeks, 1/8/04.

Cat,

This is very interesting. After reading this I realize that it has held true amongst the females in my extended family; those who were great at math/logic/spacial etc. also prefer/preferred darker colors and weren't fantastic at coloring when young. I am also noticing that my DD, who is the logical one and who figured out how to open the magnetic tot locks at 2, scribbles in black and brown a lot. The DD who uses the bright colors most, is our most girly, creative, emotional one.

Very interesting.

Susan

Parent to GGG born 31 weeks 4 days 4/26/07




http://www.thedivinemercy.org/message

  

Quoted from Cat----
You might really enjoy reading the book, "Why Gender Matters." It was written by a doctor who looked askance at the "nurture vs. nature" debate.

The book is definitely worth reading. A real eye opener into what is happening with boys in the educational system.

-----------------
Thanks Cat! I will have to look into that book. Do you remember the author? It is sad that early education seems to really concentrate on methods that girls excell at more. Of course, then they try to kick all of us girls out of math and science later. I will say that our school does do some "Lively Learning" where movement is incorporated into learning, at least in kindergarten.

I can definitely see that DS's fine motor skills are not as good as his sisters. Just never sure if it's because he doesn't care as much or really hasn't developed those skills yet.

I do know a b/g set of twins I grew up with where the boy was always seen as the less accomplished of the two --almost to the point that he saw himself as a failure--and I don't want that to happen with my trio. Seemed like he never got along with his twin because she was the "smart" one and he was the "dumb" one.

Shoot!!! I really gotta learn more about this stuff.

Andi
g/b/g
triplets in 1st gr.

I live in Virginia and there are a couple of public schools not far from where I live that are experimenting with separating genders when teaching some core subjects for this very reason. Boys and girls learn differently. They are testing this at the middle school level. I think it's a great idea and hope it is an option at our local public schools when the time comes for my kids.

Here's an article discussing the pilot program.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/15/AR2010061505183.html

Joan
mom to Caroline, Erin and Robbie
born 9/26/05 @ 35 weeks
visit us at http://www.babyhomepages.net/greenetriplets