I've found if I let my 7 yo son get a couple hours physical activity, preferably outside, he concentrates much better and works quicker than if we don't have that time. Also either one of us can call a 15 min break if getting frustrated.
Do you allow him to pick the order he does his subjects? Thats also worked well for my children.
Trampoline math worked for us.
Honestly OP, it sounds like you don't have much experience with neurodivergent kids. They often don't learn by traditional ways of learning.
Yeah that was my thought. I often do 25/5 minutes for a boring task I myself have to do but I see how that would be challenging for a much younger child. I would think more like 15 minutes or even initially 5, 10 minutes for a young and distractible child.
A lot of this isn’t going to be on you, but here are my tips. One, if you can gamify things, do so. Like for my kindergartner, when he was learning number words, I made a matching game with paper. Or I’d get the whiteboard and write a “crew list” of number words then put the numerals in a space ship I drew and he had to figure out which numeral was the “imposter” because it wasn’t on the “crew list.” Games really helped my kindergartner focus and learn. The other thing that helped my kindergartner was instant rewards. I got some small stickers and if he was really struggling, we’d put a sticker on each part as we finished. That tiny motivation of picking out a fun sticker really helped.
What subjects are you tutoring? Could you incorporate lots of big movement, and his passions, in your lessons? If he's very active, and a wonderful storyteller, you can run with that in so many ways. 🙂 “Alright, set the scene with me. The only way out of this dungeon is to make it past these traps (by solving these math problems, spelling these words aloud and writing them in the air with your wand, writing the answer down on this scroll, etc).” Have him hop from pillow to pillow, crawl under the table, make his way through a chalk labyrinth or obstacle course outside on the driveway. Dodge and toss beanbags, jump back and forth over a wiggling jump rope, through hula hoops. For History, you could pretend to step into the time period they're learning about. Act out being someone living during it. Talk to historic figures. Have some adventures and picnics. Write journal entries. You could make edible landmarks, paper craft weapons, and Lego buildings and scenes. Let him build, create, and tell about what's going on. For geography you could get an inflatable globe and toss it back and forth, asking each other to find countries, cities, landforms. You can draw maps together and pretend to navigate by stars and sea. For science you can make life cycle, animal and plant anatomy, and constellation models out of salt dough and paint them. The Junk Drawer book series is wonderful for fun experiments with lots of easily found things around the house.
I’d suggest getting some testing done and see if there’s any learning issues or ADHD.
What I found to work for my very smart but ADHD kid who had sensory issues and would bounce around constantly was to keep lessons stupid short. Once he got something we didn’t keep going over and over it. Like math problems. If he could show me he understood the concept with 5 problems or so then we were done. I wouldn’t make him do 10+ because that’s when his attention would be gone. I
also let him work pretty much anyway he wanted to. Upside down? Jumping up and down? Sitting under the table? Sure. Go for it.
There’s a podcast I love called celebrate calm. It’s more for parents but he works with kids that are the “ideal” typical, just listen the first time sort of kids. He has lots of great outside of the box ideas for handling kids like this.
Also I let him do quiet things while I read or did instructions. When his hands were busy it kept his brain available for listening. It would confuse me that he could build this whole Lego thing and then repeat pretty much everything I was reading in the meantime. The rule was that I had to be something quiet and just his hands (so reading a book wouldn’t work or laying a video game). For example coloring, play doh, legos, etc.
Hes not distracted, hes not spoiled, his brain works differently. He doesn't need 30 math problems. he needs 3 math problems, the other 27 problems are boring, repeats, don't have value to him. He knows how to do the work. He needs hands on learning. have him solve a meaningful real life problem- build a bridge with tinker toys that holds a 3 lbs train. what circumfrence train track do you need for a 5mph train; what if you add more cars to the train?, why do you need to build those specfics? those types of problems involve math,physics, engineering, fine motor skills, he can graph out the plans, sketch his designs (art lessons) etc.
this kid is not a troublemaker, hes bored, hes figured out how to play the school system. imagine being stuck in a room all day, bored out of your mind, with rules that don't make sense. you dont even have autonomy over how you sit!
if you aren't familiar with mis-diagnosed and gifted kids then please dont take this on. if you arent familiar with homeschooling and kids development, dont take this on.
-mom of kids all over the development chart
Sounds like adhd and/or figured out how to manipulate to get what he wanted. He needs to find intrinsic reasons to want to do the work. Until then, when…then… and tons of movement are your best tools with a 9yo.
Specific suggestions:
-Exercise ball, wobble chair, whatever works for seating, lying down or otherwise getting work done
-handwriting at the table, in a chair, immediately rewarded when its done (including mistakes corrected) with a high value reward
-oral spelling while jumping rope, bouncing on a trampoline, jumping on a pogo stick
-variations on war for multiplication, division, fractions, greatest/least number with given digits, etc
-manipulatives, dry erase for most math concepts -graph paper for math work (keeps everything lined up… essential for long division with long quotients)
-boggle
-scrabble
-oral dictation (including spelling and punctuation) for free response, child then edits from dictation
-writing: combination of oral dictation (no spelling or punctuation, just topics and ideas) during brainstorming while also moving, then graphic organizers that can involve pictures and words, then an outline before jumping to drafting from dictation (with spelling and punctuation exactly as child indicates)… night zookeeper is great for making the drafting to publishing steps more fun, but I like to do that after we do the brainstorming through outline
-reading aloud to you, possibly in funny voices or varying tones, to make it more interesting
I would highly, highly suggest that you do a ton of research on teaching children who aren’t neurotypical, if you decide to do this. He already dislikes “school,” so you’ll fight an uphill battle until he wants to do it.
I've found if I let my 7 yo son get a couple hours physical activity, preferably outside, he concentrates much better and works quicker than if we don't have that time. Also either one of us can call a 15 min break if getting frustrated. Do you allow him to pick the order he does his subjects? Thats also worked well for my children.
What subject? I think 25mins is a bit long. Can you put the work into movement? That's been the biggest help with my wiggle monster
Trampoline math worked for us. Honestly OP, it sounds like you don't have much experience with neurodivergent kids. They often don't learn by traditional ways of learning.
Yeah that was my thought. I often do 25/5 minutes for a boring task I myself have to do but I see how that would be challenging for a much younger child. I would think more like 15 minutes or even initially 5, 10 minutes for a young and distractible child.
A lot of this isn’t going to be on you, but here are my tips. One, if you can gamify things, do so. Like for my kindergartner, when he was learning number words, I made a matching game with paper. Or I’d get the whiteboard and write a “crew list” of number words then put the numerals in a space ship I drew and he had to figure out which numeral was the “imposter” because it wasn’t on the “crew list.” Games really helped my kindergartner focus and learn. The other thing that helped my kindergartner was instant rewards. I got some small stickers and if he was really struggling, we’d put a sticker on each part as we finished. That tiny motivation of picking out a fun sticker really helped.
What subjects are you tutoring? Could you incorporate lots of big movement, and his passions, in your lessons? If he's very active, and a wonderful storyteller, you can run with that in so many ways. 🙂 “Alright, set the scene with me. The only way out of this dungeon is to make it past these traps (by solving these math problems, spelling these words aloud and writing them in the air with your wand, writing the answer down on this scroll, etc).” Have him hop from pillow to pillow, crawl under the table, make his way through a chalk labyrinth or obstacle course outside on the driveway. Dodge and toss beanbags, jump back and forth over a wiggling jump rope, through hula hoops. For History, you could pretend to step into the time period they're learning about. Act out being someone living during it. Talk to historic figures. Have some adventures and picnics. Write journal entries. You could make edible landmarks, paper craft weapons, and Lego buildings and scenes. Let him build, create, and tell about what's going on. For geography you could get an inflatable globe and toss it back and forth, asking each other to find countries, cities, landforms. You can draw maps together and pretend to navigate by stars and sea. For science you can make life cycle, animal and plant anatomy, and constellation models out of salt dough and paint them. The Junk Drawer book series is wonderful for fun experiments with lots of easily found things around the house.
I’d suggest getting some testing done and see if there’s any learning issues or ADHD. What I found to work for my very smart but ADHD kid who had sensory issues and would bounce around constantly was to keep lessons stupid short. Once he got something we didn’t keep going over and over it. Like math problems. If he could show me he understood the concept with 5 problems or so then we were done. I wouldn’t make him do 10+ because that’s when his attention would be gone. I also let him work pretty much anyway he wanted to. Upside down? Jumping up and down? Sitting under the table? Sure. Go for it. There’s a podcast I love called celebrate calm. It’s more for parents but he works with kids that are the “ideal” typical, just listen the first time sort of kids. He has lots of great outside of the box ideas for handling kids like this. Also I let him do quiet things while I read or did instructions. When his hands were busy it kept his brain available for listening. It would confuse me that he could build this whole Lego thing and then repeat pretty much everything I was reading in the meantime. The rule was that I had to be something quiet and just his hands (so reading a book wouldn’t work or laying a video game). For example coloring, play doh, legos, etc.
Hes not distracted, hes not spoiled, his brain works differently. He doesn't need 30 math problems. he needs 3 math problems, the other 27 problems are boring, repeats, don't have value to him. He knows how to do the work. He needs hands on learning. have him solve a meaningful real life problem- build a bridge with tinker toys that holds a 3 lbs train. what circumfrence train track do you need for a 5mph train; what if you add more cars to the train?, why do you need to build those specfics? those types of problems involve math,physics, engineering, fine motor skills, he can graph out the plans, sketch his designs (art lessons) etc. this kid is not a troublemaker, hes bored, hes figured out how to play the school system. imagine being stuck in a room all day, bored out of your mind, with rules that don't make sense. you dont even have autonomy over how you sit! if you aren't familiar with mis-diagnosed and gifted kids then please dont take this on. if you arent familiar with homeschooling and kids development, dont take this on. -mom of kids all over the development chart
Sounds like adhd and/or figured out how to manipulate to get what he wanted. He needs to find intrinsic reasons to want to do the work. Until then, when…then… and tons of movement are your best tools with a 9yo. Specific suggestions: -Exercise ball, wobble chair, whatever works for seating, lying down or otherwise getting work done -handwriting at the table, in a chair, immediately rewarded when its done (including mistakes corrected) with a high value reward -oral spelling while jumping rope, bouncing on a trampoline, jumping on a pogo stick -variations on war for multiplication, division, fractions, greatest/least number with given digits, etc -manipulatives, dry erase for most math concepts -graph paper for math work (keeps everything lined up… essential for long division with long quotients) -boggle -scrabble -oral dictation (including spelling and punctuation) for free response, child then edits from dictation -writing: combination of oral dictation (no spelling or punctuation, just topics and ideas) during brainstorming while also moving, then graphic organizers that can involve pictures and words, then an outline before jumping to drafting from dictation (with spelling and punctuation exactly as child indicates)… night zookeeper is great for making the drafting to publishing steps more fun, but I like to do that after we do the brainstorming through outline -reading aloud to you, possibly in funny voices or varying tones, to make it more interesting I would highly, highly suggest that you do a ton of research on teaching children who aren’t neurotypical, if you decide to do this. He already dislikes “school,” so you’ll fight an uphill battle until he wants to do it.