Sitting Still Training

I've been working with all 4 of my kids on Sitting Still Training. "What's that?" you ask. "Why?" you wonder.

Well, I've realized that most of my kids have no tolerance at all for sitting still. I'd like to be able to take them somewhere - church, the dentist's office, to a movie, etc. and have them be able to sit still in their chairs. They don't sit still. They wiggle. They talk. They crawl under the chair. They fidget. They get up and run around. They change seats. Enough already! Ta-dah! Sitting Still Training!

How exactly am I doing it? Well, it's pretty simple. They practice sitting still.

I line them up sitting on the couch. I want them all together because that's the hardest time to sit still - when you are with your siblings.

I put on classical music. (They love classical, by the way, thanks to the Classical Kids audiotapes I mentioned on this blog a while back.)

I set the timer.

They sit. And sit. And sit some more.

They aren't always sitting perfectly still and quiet, but that's the goal and they are learning how.

I am working on 90 minutes of sitting still. Once they have all achieved it, which could take a while, we will do a big family prize.

They each have a chart to keep track of how long they can sit. They earn 3 individual prizes along the way (to keep things exciting! and no, I don't care if you call it bribing, if my kids will be sitting still while you say it!).

David is up to something like 45 minutes. Emily is around 30. James and Suzy, not surprisingly, are much farther behind. But I have confidence they can learn it.

And after Sitting Still is achieved, we move on to STANDING STILL. Oy.