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Tips & Tricks: Not Ready

Our oldest daughter has always been very advanced so she is a whole grade ahead of kids her age. This is great and I love that she has a passion for learning. Not all kids will be this way. Not all kids will be ready for everything at the same time as their friends or even their own family members. You will need to decided if your child needs extra work for things or if they simple are not ready. You do not want to push a child or force them to do something they are not ready for. If you child absolutely does not like writing and it is a struggle everyday to get them to write even something simple them write it for them. It will get you through the day without a fight. They will eventually learn the skills just in their own time. Our daughter read her first book before she was 3 but I did not read until I was 9 and I went to public school. So delays do not mean your child would be better off in public school or that you are not a suitable teacher for them.

Some signs that your kiddo may not be ready:
  • they fight doing the work however this can also because they do not like the subject
  • they really just do not understand what they need to do
  • they might fake being sick or say they can not do the work
  • they have not mastered the material needed for the new thing they are learning
    • example: have not mastered the alphabet then do not push reading yet instead focus on letters and their sounds
  • they just want you to do all the work
  • they are taking a long time to finish the work

Some things that can help you are going slower on the lessons. You do not need to finish things in a certain time so do not rush. Show your child a few examples and do not take shortcuts. For things like math when it is a new concept I do one for our daughter to show her how it is done and then see if she can do it herself. I do show her tricks that I have learned along the way to make it easier as well. If you know tricks to certain things then teach them to your child it may help them tremendously. For reading if they are starting out learning to blend sounds but do not quite say the sounds fast enough to hear the blend then say them for your child. If they do not like writing yet do ahead and do it for them as long as they are still young. For history/social studies and science try different things if your curriculum is mostly reading add in visuals and experiments to make it hands on and explain the facts behind it along the way. If you have ways to make things easier when your child is not ready then let us know in the comments!


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