Help! Have You Been Where I Am?

“I just don’t know what to do anymore! Little Suzy won’t sit still longer than five minutes.” “Johnny is having problems telling the letter b from the letter d.” “I just am not sure if I should help Sally Ann more with her counting lessons. What do you think?” Can you find yourself in any of these scenarios? Wouldn’t it be nice if you could ask other folks who are using the same online curriculum you are using what there experience has been or what they have done in the same situation? Some online resources do offer a forum for users to communicate back and forth for the very reasons listed above--parents, teachers, or learning coaches sometimes have questions and would like to know what others who are using the same material have to say. If your online resource does not offer a forum for communicating, you can always search Yahoo Groups to find folks who are like-minded or who are using the same curriculum, and may be located within your city or state.

Attention

Does your child have a very short attention span? Do you know what the normal attention span should be for a kindergarten aged child? Maybe they are right on track for what is considered normal for their age. The average attention span for a kindergarten aged child is short--about 15 to 20 minutes long at most, and that depends on the interest level of the activity. If the activity was not self picked, their patience may play out well before the 15-20 minute guideline. To decide attention span length, use this as a guideline--3-5 minutes per the age of the child. Please keep in mind that since most kids can and do watch cartoons with no problem for thirty minutes at a time, this is not an accurate way to measure true attention span. When your child seems to be losing interest in a lesson, pause the lesson and take a break. You can always go back to the lesson later. Watch for fatigue in your child. They may try to focus too long in some instances. One way many online resources encourage children to remain focused on a lesson is by using animated graphics and flash animation. This is especially helpful for visual learners.