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Does anyone else start lots of things but not finish?

4 replies

angelstar · 01/04/2011 09:37

I find we starts lots of different projects etc but we never finish anything. I do find this a bit frustrating. DD seems to lose interest so quickly.

OP posts:
Dunoon · 01/04/2011 18:56

Children's stuff gets culled regularly but I am the worst with a knitting project from the 80's still hanging around and baskets full of material and even patterns.

Saracen · 02/04/2011 05:47

Is your daughter bothered about the fact that the projects aren't finished? Maybe you can redefine the types of projects you do so they feel more open-ended and can be put down at any time without a sense of failure or incompleteness?

For example, my dd felt bad about the fact that she got bored with her knitting before it was finished. Now instead of knitting a hat, she just starts knitting a long thin thing, LOL. When she's had enough, she looks at what she's got. It might be a dolly scarf, a teddy pinic blanket, or a Barbie blanket depending how big it has grown.

I don't think all children feel the need for completion in their learning. Why slog on once her interests have shifted? The main thing is that she should enjoy what she's learning and leave it hungry for more. If she feels she must finish whatever she starts, she may become reluctant to start. She can always come back in later years to look at things again if she wants to. What I know is not very systematic either. I know more about the Victorians than the Edwardians, more about Spain than Italy, more about the European exploration of the Americas than the East Indies. I only know a few languages reasonably well, though I can remember having started another eight or so. Those bits and pieces of other languages are still valuable to me and have helped me bumble my way through Belgium and Portugal.

Things become complicated in later years if there are formal courses involved. I've forgotten how old your daughter is; is she anywhere near wanting to do college-level study where a lot of chopping and changing might be frowned on? If not, perhaps it's better to focus on what she has done rather than on what she hasn't. Think of the projects she has begun as so many sparks that have been lit.

angelstar · 02/04/2011 14:06

She's only 11 (12 next month) and she isn't bothered about finishing things, its just me Blush I'm still finding my way with home education and think I need to probably stop stressing so much.

OP posts:
julienoshoes · 02/04/2011 15:47

mmm I agree angelstar!

It's one of the things I found most difficult-stopping something when the child in question has had enough!
I found though if I laboured the point.......made them finish something....I put them off the subject just as effectively as school had done

With the benefits of hindsight, as the 'children' are all grown now, I can see that just because they stopped something for a while, or didn't finish (to my mind I mean) a project, didn't mean they wouldn't come back to it later.
I realised over time that often, they needed space to consider things, to turn things over in their own minds, without outside pressure. Many times over the years we have revisited subjects/projects/interests-when the child was interested again- and covered much more ground than I had originally intended.

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