I belong to a Yahoo Group for people using the homeschool curriculum that I use, and one of the moderators is wise and often funny too. Her solution for dealing with kids who say they're bored is priceless:
In the medical field, we ask patients to rate their pain on a scale of 1 to 10. When my kids complain of boredom, I ask them to rate it on the same scale. If they are approaching a 10, this is a true emergency! No amount of mindless entertainment can save them now. Only rigorous work can maintain the heart rate above asystole.
I have never had a child become so bored that I had to start CPR, but anything is possible once boredom reaches life threatening levels.
Once the patient says, "stop it mom, you are not funny", then you know you have successfully converted a code W (W stands for whining) to a normal rhythm.
1 comment:
That's a good one! One of my foster kids used to tell me, "I'm boooooored" So I told her that it is usually boring people who are bored. Thankfully she has grown into a lovely young woman who has learned to turn her boredom into helping others.
When my kids were young, I had a large colored poster board with library pockets glued to it. Activities were written on the pockets. They put a card with their name on it into the pocket of the activity they chose to help with their boredom. It worked (most of the time).
I had the same thing in my classroom, so that kids who finished first, had meaningful activities while the rest of the class finished.
One thing with home schooling, you can keep them busy every minute since it is such close supervision.
I found at home, the "I'm bored" usually meant they wanted to watch TV, which was very limited in my home.
With all you do with your kids, I'm sure they are seldom bored.....however, I think that's a common complaint with all of us once in a while, especially when we have been rained in for days on end.
Take care.
Joan
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