Let's Get Real - Don't Give Up on Your Boys!

Let's Get Real

May. 14, 2006

Don't Give Up on Your Boys!

I have 4 boys and 1 girl. Maybe it's different in your family, but in our family we discovered teaching boys to be very different from teaching girls!

My girl loved her workbooks. She loved writing and spending time filling in blanks, etc. My boys, however, were NOT into the workbooks! They were NOT interested in writing or reading or anything that had to do with formal schooling. They WERE interested in building things, moving around, playing pretend (except for my sons with autism) and making messes. Don't give up on your boys!

My sons were late bloomers. My oldest couldn't spell consistently well until age 16! But he finally DID IT! He was an excellent reader, and excelled in every other subject, but spelling was very hard for him.

My middle son read late -- he couldn't read until he was 9. He is15 now and reads beautifully, but it took him awhile to catch up! He has dyslexia, and he struggles in spelling, but he is doing better and better with plenty of consistent practice. It is important for children like this to be taught how to break down parts of a word. (Hopefully I can write more about this later.)

Most likely your late-bloomer son will "catch up." You might not get to do every single lesson in a book as you go along your homeschool journey. Remember, in most "canned" curriculums, grade 3 generally reviews everything in grades 1 & 2 and grade 6 generally reviews things learned in grades 4 & 5. So if you miss a lesson or two because of your boy's frustration level -- don't sweat it! I didn't, and my two older boys just finally "clicked" at some point in time. While I held them both back in 1st grade (doing first grade twice), they were all caught up to grade level by grade 7.

I have taught a lot of boys and have found the same to be true for them, too. I think one of the most important things we can teach our sons, as far as schooling is concerned, is organization. So many boys can't organize their belongings and supplies and papers. I found that if I can help them learn to organize and keep track of their things, it helps them so much in organizing their thinking. It took me 3 years to teach my 15 year old how to organize his papers and supplies but now he does it! He still "explodes" his supplies and papers all over his study table, but he does know how to organize them when it's time to clean up. He knows how to file his papers in correct folders, etc. That is a HUGE thing for him as he struggles in the area of executive functioning.

Another boy I taught couldn't even find a pencil every time it was time to do paper work. Now, after teaching him to organize, he is a top student! He is a boy who is usually on his own planet -- very spacey and dreamy. But he has now learned how to learn -- and that was the biggest battle of them all!

Listening is another skill that is SO important for our boys to develop. I have observed children who attend our cottage school where they are required to listen to chapter books and scripture versus children who are in public school, and there is just a really huge difference in their attention spans.

Attentiveness is a very important skill for boys, too. In this age of computer games, TV and violent movies, I encourage parents to keep their kids far from this kind of technology as long as possible -- especially their boys. In my experience, these so-called "entertainments" seem to wreak havoc on a child's attention span and ability to focus. I have observed young children after playing a video game on the computer for an hour. When it was time to do any kind of pencil work the child became anxious and short-fused.

These are just a few of the things I've learned in teaching boys. Never give up on your boy!

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Comments

May. 15, 2006 - I also have 4 boys & 1 girl to teach

Posted by Anonymous

Thank you for posting this. One of my boys hates all book work. He learns by hands on and I am creative but for that I am not doing so well. He is 12yr old and English is hard to do hands on, also I think he needs to do bookwork to prepare for adult life. My other boys like a variety of school work so they cooperate with me. I hope you will post more about your experience with BOYS. Thanks and God Bless....ktneis

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