How to motivate a lazy year 2 boy?

[muffinflop]

DS' teacher informed me yesterday that he's lazy! He is more than capable of doing the work but really can't be bothered. She said she's tried jollying him along, tried rewards, tried blackmail but he just doesn't seem to care that his work isn't up to scratch.

It's mostly his writing where he'll just write random drivel as he thinks it so it doesn't make sense. He's not using any 'wow' words (whatever they are) or connectives because he can't be bothered to think about it.

How can I/we get him to actually do some work which is of the standard he should be doing by now?

This is about another thread I assume?

Or did you mean 12?

'wow' words are interesting adjectives and verbs - added into creative writing to make it more interesting and descriptive.

eg he yelled/she screeched/they sobbed rather than just he said/she said.

He is still pretty young, to be fair. Is it only creative-type writing that is a problem? How's his technical stuff (not everyone likes creative)? Has he been shown (and does he understand ) how to structure a story?

If you really think he is capable of doing better, and it is just laziness, then you could tell his teacher to refuse to accept his worst effort and to make him re-do it (at playtime, or at home).

Pag I think that's Year 2 ie 7/8 year old, not a 2 year old which is how I first read it.

Yes barbarianmum he's in year 2. No idea what thread you're talking about pag (although it sounds interesting and I will have to try and find it!)

I think it is just his creative writing. He will write the simplest thing he thinks he can get away with and says that's all he can do - although his teacher has seen better work from him before so knows that isn't the case. I know they have done story structure and assume he understands it but maybe that's something I can work on with him.

I know he's still only young but it's frustrating when I know he could/should be doing more than can be bothered to do

I have been known, in bad cases of laziness, to become all 'old school' and require poor writing to be re-done in the child's own time - ie break and lunch - until vompleted to a proper standard.

Obviously, that is ONLY if I know that the child is definitely choosing to work below their normal standard (kept up in previous pieces of work), rather than a child who is not picking up new things from class teaching and then showing them in their work.

It isn't clear from the OP - has your DS previously worked at a consistently higher standard and is now refusing to work at that standard (possible laziness) or is it that you 'feel' he should now be progressing to a higher standard but he is not doing so? If the latter - he has never used wow words or connectives but you and his teacher think that he should have started doing so - then it may well not be laziness but some other underlying cause.

A 'failure to make progress' would be treated in an entirely different way - lots of guided work in a group with an adult, small group interventions with a TA, moving on to targeted assessment looking for a specific SEN or difficulty (e.g. specialist eye tests, hearing tests, working memory etc etc.

Reading your post teacherwith2kids I do think maybe it's a case of him not picking up new things and so yes it would be a failure to progress. He was 'ahead of expectations' this time last year so I suppose that was why I assumed it was a case of him just not bothering rather than not being able IYKWIM. Thinking back to my conversation the teacher did say she'd flagged him as a concern

If that is the case, what can I do to help him at home?

I would talk to the teacher to get her specific advice.

However, one very simple thing you can do to increase vocabulary for writing would be to spot interesting words as you read with him or to him, and perhaps make it a game to put them into a sentence verbally (the sillier the sentence the better, IME, but the word still needs to be used correctly). It would be intersting of itself if he can say sentences including wow words easily but doesn't write them - I teach a child with acute tracking difficulties whose spoken and written language are MILES apart because he simply can't write down those long and exciting words he uses naturally when speaking.

On connectives, I sometimes play that game from 'Just a Minute' where you try to avoid ending a sentence, with each of you saying a word at a time 'The...silly...man...went...to...the...shop...BUT ... they...didn't...have...any...mouldy....green...bread....SO...he...went...to...the...next....shop....and...after...that etc etc.

People, including children, prefer doing things that they enjoy. Try to find a way of making creative writing fun for him.

How about a game in the car where you think of all the words for 'said' that you can think of. Or all the ways you could say, "He was scared". etc. etc. Games at times where he's already gonna be bored and is a captive audience. Car time is great for this!