How do you get your kids to concentrate...

[georgiemum]

... longer than 30 seconds?

DS 4.5 is like a force of nature. Very active, very noisy and an absolute hoot. The problem is getting him to listen or follow instruction as there is always a million other things far more interesting to do/see/comment on.

Sports lessons are a disaster - 1 hour of crawling under nets, playing 'dead', chasing balls, jumping, running, dancing... anything but listen to the teacher.

I am worried that he will never be able to sit and do homework or listen in class as his mind will be elsewhere (a bit like his old mum - I was always in another world when I was at school).

He is a smart kid - even the teachers say he is advanced but unless he starts listening...

but he's only 4.5! Plenty of time to learn how to listen when he's a bit older. Boys seem to get this much later than girls, but most do settle down and listen when they need to.

DH is pretty hung up on this.

At parents evening the teacher said that he needed to learn to concentrate for 20mins by the time he goes into year 1 so that he will be ok in lessons. DH seems to think that he should be doing this and is nagging me about it constantly.

still 7 months til he's in yr 1! Lots of time for growing.

Get him on Equazin EyeQ (strawberry flavour) chewy supplements. They are brill! My ds aged 6 has them and he is a nightmare at school, lacks concentration, cannot finish a task, had an egg timer set for 10 mins just to get him to sit down. This week his teacher said she could not believe the improvement in his concentration levels recently (he's been on them for about 3 months). They contain omega 3,6, & 9 and are available from Boot and Tesco (£8.99).

Also, if you have not already, seriously look at levels of sugar in his current diet along with E numbers, preservatives etc. You will be amazed at the difference this makes to their behaviour. Year 1 is a huge shock to many children as it is far more structured and 'work' based. It was a real culture shock to my little lad, but by helping him in this way, it's helped him in the classroom. Good luck

goergiemum i think what you describe is pretty normal for a 4.5yr old boy.

my DS1 (5 but Aug baby so now in yr1) is pretty similar, Could be what they are doing in class is not interesting to him? try and give him outlets for his energy a bit hard in winter it know but I really don't think there is time in the school timetable for enough energy expenditure. My DS1 went through a really bad time of poor concentration because he wasn't getting to sleep at night but has improved since we have got his bed times back on track.

I've been looking on old post today about eye q fish oil tablet, and I'm going to buy some tomorrow!!!!

sorry, what I meant was Mumsnet old posts.