Hello to All,
I'm hoping someone out there may have some good ideas for me with a problem I'm having.
My son is 5 to turn 6 in May. He's extremely friendly and very curious.
When in pre-school he'd pop out of line and pop into a classroom, just to check it out. He did manage to stop this after a few months.
Now he's in Young 5's and again was popping out of line to check other things out and again has stopped this but has an occassional moment. Now in Young 5's they are doing more intense learning and we just received his first ever report card and has acomplished all he's supposed to be doing. However, the teacher's comments stated that his focus/concentration needs working on.
So...my question is...Does anyone have ANY focus/concentrating games, learning techniques or any other information that you might be able to pass onto to me?
Thank you so much in advance for your time and help!
Sadly this is training. Do you have family meals? If not, I suggest having a family meal every night to 3 times a week where everyone has to stay seated for the whole meal until the slowest eater is done. It really helped my daughter stay focused and discipline herself in focusing.
actually physical movement is good for focus ... is there anyway the teacher can encorporate before a test or when focus is being lost a 5min movement thing ... jumping jacks, toe touches, head shoulders knees and toes, etc for all the kids to do. At home before homework play a game/wrestle etc and then after as well. physical movement really helps get things in your brain/body moving right/well.
memory loved that game as a child with the find the matching pictures
Read longer and longer books, work up to chapter books.
This isn't a cure-alll but I'd sure try to keep the amount of sugar and food coloring and addititives to a minimum, especially before school. Also, games like MEMORY would be good. He may get better as he gets older. If it gets worse, you can have him evaluated for ADD/ADHD and consider medication. I'd say sugar is the worse for hyping these kids up.
My daughter was the same way and had to be told to pay attention often until about 2nd grade. In 3rd she did have to sit closer to the teacher because she got distracted very easily. One card game I bought was Blink. Not sure if your son is too young for it but she liked it. Another thing we did was put out tiles of letters (it was a container of small 1 inch letter tiles) and she had to find a certain letter. As she got older, she had to spell words. We would make it a race with my other kids. BTW, my daughter is a very good student and great artist so art could be a good tool also.
You might just chat with him about following instructions from his teacher, about what is acceptable and what is not. Most little guys have a pretty short attention span. You also might be mindful of what he is eating in the morning before school to be sure he doesn't have alot of empty carbs and sugar. My #3 daughter was very lively also. I read a great book "Raising your Spirited Child" . "Spirited" children are more of everything within their personalities. As far as techniques to enhance his concentration, you might work with small tasks at home...every task has a begining and an end. He needs to finish what he starts, put things away when he is done with them. Establish a sense of order for him so he feels the success of finishing. Spirited children are typically very successful adults. No worries!
