Sitting Still Training Redux

My kids are now ages 18, 16, 13, and 11. During our last few weeks of lessons, we became  rather retrospective, at least my oldest son and I were. He graduated two weeks ago, so he is now done homeschooling!

Pause with me while I catch my breath. (I know some of you can't imagine being done with homeschooling. But it seems like it went by so fast!)

Anyway, my younger two were having a hard time sitting still. These two always have a hard time sitting still. They never really have liked sitting and listening, especially my 13yo son.

My older two blame this on the lack of Sitting Still Training for the younger two. We focused on this quite thoroughly about seven years ago (when my oldest was the age of my youngest). This made me think that perhaps we should work on it again.

What is "Sitting Still Training?" you may wonder. Well, just what it sounds like. They practice sitting still.

For some ideas and thoughts on how it works out, check out my blog post from 2006 (linked above). We will be working on it just the same during the summer. And maybe by fall, my two younger kids will be proficient sitters!

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.