How do you tell if your child is bored by their school work or just lazy?

[MumblingRagDoll]

DD is 6...she's always been very articulate and naughty challenging. At school she took a year to settle in and baically wouldnt speak...but now aged 6 and coming to the end of year 2 she hascome on quite well.

Her teacher says she grasps certain concepts before others and easily understands abstract things....but she is slow to finish written work though she reads at an age of around 9 years....her handwriting isnt great but her spelling is excellent.


EVERY week she has 12 spellings....she is meant to write a sentence with each word in it...so 12 sentences....she HATES this....and I find that even before I ask her to do it, she knows how to spell all the words on the list...so I will say "Spell Eighteen" and she will say it.....she gets them all correct in this manner every week...I then ask her to write the sentences and it can take me 2 hours to cajole her...when she does it she fiishes it in a few minutes.

She has told me that she sometimes gets things wrng on purpose at school..when I ask why she cannot tell me.

As I said...she's very articulate and sometimes corrects my grammar but I don't kno why she's so difficult over her spellings. I have tried MANY ways to get her to do them includng telling the teacher she hates them...the teacher said "Dont make her do them then...have her do what she feels she can...I knoly want her to understand how to place each work within it's proper context...hence the sentences."

She already knows how to place most words in sentences.
Sorry it's long....is she bored or just a little horror?

[cece]

Sounds very similar to DS1.

Also in Year 2. IMO he is a lazy little horror.

[Elibean]

She sounds bright - could well be bored. Also, tbh, its probably partly the age - dd (also Y2, and one of the older ones) was like this 6 months ago, and is now coming out of it.

The other possibility is that she finds writing difficult - not mentally, but physically. We have an EYF leader at dd's school who has done lots of research into improving fine motor skills with children who struggle with writing - makes a huge difference, apparently. Is your dd 'good' with fiddly things? Sewing, threading, dressing Polly Pocket dolls, anything that uses fine motor control? Just a thought...

[MumblingRagDoll]

Lol....I thought so! She also get's very reluctant to go anywhere...gymnastics, visiting, the park...lazy she is....likes hanging at home and making weird things.

[mrz]

I don't think it's either. She clearly doesn't find writing (as in the physical process) an easy process so being asked to write down 12 sentences makes her rebel.

[cece]

OMG she is definitely like my DS - he never wants to go or do anything! Drives me mad.

[MumblingRagDoll]

It get's to me Cece because I can never tell if she doesnt want to do an activity because she genuinely doesn't like it or she can't be bothered and will love it when she gets there!

[Elibean]

agree with mrz (again, sorry, boring )

[MumblingRagDoll]

Can anyone recomend any non-writing activities which could help her to get bette at writing then? Funnily she is very dexterous...can sew very well by hand, make lovely and intricate clay models...paint and draw very well...sje loves al these things.

[Elibean]

Re not wanting to go anywhere: dd1 is/was like that (again, seems to be changing recently) and I think she genuinely felt safer and happier with a known environment, and also loves home/homey activities. She does usually enjoy things once she gets there, but I've cut her some slack on this - let her be homey, and sure enough she's grown more confident and is moving on from this phase.

It did drive me nuts for years though!

[MumblingRagDoll]

Elibean x posts..but as above she is very good with fiddly things...and rally loves them.

[MumblingRagDoll]

Ye Eli...I do allow her to be homey...but she liked gymnastics when she was there...and was very good at it...sh just can't be bothered. We dont do much...only that and visiting family...rare playdates...we're not ones for heading off all the time...I am also a bit homey.

[WowOoo]

Mrz has put lists on here if you search history to help with fine motor skills.

But Op, I'm thinking the same thing about ds. Don't want to push him so much that he hates writing. Want him to want to write IYSWIM.

At the moment things like monsters names and wish lists for things to buy with pocket money are doing the trick at home.
You could send a note to teacher. I think it's quite a lot of work to do. Do you think so?

[MumblingRagDoll]

She is very good socially...is popular and good with her friends at school and also her cousins...

[MumblingRagDoll]

The only thing she chooses to write are lists of her friends and herself and what they like...as in colours, pets etc....she wll sometimes write rude stories about poo and wee.

[ashamed]

[MumblingRagDoll]

But does the fact that she has excellent fine motor skills already, mean that there is something else behind it all? She has recent;y had her eyes tested....no problems.

[SummerRain]

ds1 is similar, very bright, incredibly articulate and quite advanced for his age (5 during the summer) but will only do school work on his terms and incredibly lazy.

Paediatrician who assessed him for dyspraxia reckons he's bored and not being challenged enough but based on home behaviour i'm more inclined to believe he's a lazy sod who can't be arsed to do the work unless it interests him.

He either does the whole weeks homework in 5 minutes on monday (teacher gives all the homework for the week on monday as there are so many in the room doing after school activities and sports which take up several evenings) or he takes hours of cajoling just to do half a page.

I've taken the laid back approach after arguing with him for months and if he's not in the mood we just leave it but if he's in the mood I try and get him to do the whole weeks just to get it out of the way.

[MumblingRagDoll]

Isnt it a bugger SummerRain?

[SummerRain]

I can't judge him too harshly.... as my mother never fails to point out to me all my kids take after me in this respect

dd refused to learn to read until about a week before her 6th birthday and now 4 months on is reading proper kids books with chapters and everything. 6 months ago we were still having warfare over her sounding out 'car' and 'shoe' fgs!

[cece]

Luckily we don't have much homework - although this will change once he is in Year 3. I am going to let him not do it as I know he will get in loads of trouble if it isn't handed in. [evil mother]

As for the trips out - I just tell him he has to come as we are all going, there is no choice. He usually is the one who enjoys it the most once we are there. He doesn't like change and new situations so that is part of it.

[Elibean]

No, the contrary, I think its probably reassuring that her fine motor skills are good!

Maybe she just knows what she does and doesn't like doing...

[Elibean]

Sorry, that was in answer to OP's question about whether good fine motor skills means there's something else behind it.

[EllenJaneisnotmyname]

Just a thought, would she type out the sentences on Word? If so, it does sound like she's just finding the physical act of writing painful and a chore. Look up those fine motor exercises. Does she enjoy colouring in with pencil crayons? No words to think of but the same physical action. Fine motor skills have to start with the shoulder, elbow, wrist then fingers etc before going straight to writing.

[IndigoBell]

Don't make her do her spellings hw. Her teacher has already said she doesn't have to.....

Maybe she is lazy? So what? It's not a bad thing..... Lots of the really brilliant people in this world are lazy - and invented things to make life easier :)

[gordongrumblebum]

I'd take the teacher's advice and drop the sentence writing. If she's doing ok in class and knows all the spellings in context, What really is the point?

[MumblingRagDoll]

School aren't keen on computer aided HW at this stage....they want her to do all the writing possible.

She isnt and never has been fond of classic "colouring in" EllenJ She prefers to draw...and paint...