struggling to keep my boy entertained at home

[purrrfect]

I have a 6 year old boy who should be put on the gifted and talented register at school for his reading but he is advanced with most academic subjects. He is well behaved at school but unless I keep him occupied at home he becomes very hard work with myself and his little brother. He only plays with toys for short periods and is mainly interested in books and puzzles eg. sudoku, codewords, game puzzles etc. With these, he will do them all the time for a few days and then get bored and want to do something else. He was into Lego and Kinnex which was great but has grown tired of them as well. He also loves the computer but I refuse to let him play on that all the time. It is coming to the stage where I am running out of ideas of how to keep him occupied - any ideas!

[carocaro]

Mindcraft on the web is amazing, might be too young, have a look, all free and non scary violent

[fedupwithdeployment]

Does he do much in the way of outdoor activities? My DS (8) is bright - although not that bright, and reads a lot. However, unless he gets out of the house and runs around, or goes for a bike ride, we all start climbing the walls! Also a trip to the playground can take a fair bit of time...

[purrrfect]

I do try to get him out into the garden but unless I am outside with him or he has friends round he never stays out for long. The park is a good break for me but often makes him more hiper. I would like to get a dog, so walks will get us out the house more and he can help me with training. Is it worth me speaking to the school, do you think they might be able to help?

[ll31]

think at that age he needs more physical activity,can he join sports club maybe?

[iseenodust]

Agree with the suggestions of more physical activity. I was amazed how little they do in school. Also many sports are great for having to work out scores (and frankly not always coming out top!).
At 6 you could start to teach him chess. Rush hour (toysrus) is a good game to play alone. DS went through a phase of building complex tracks/loops to chuck marbles down. You'd be surprised how much 'fun' there is to be had from ordering / learning all the values on a pack of top trumps - but then he will win be warned.

[purrrfect]

Thanks for the suggestions, I am looking into gymnastics and karate classes at the moment but these things can be expensive! My son swore at my husband this morning, although after I went mad and I have said I would speak to his teacher and have his name put on the board at school (something he is really concerned about as does not want to get into trouble at school!) so he has promised me he will try harder to behave at home. However I feel he does need the physical activity and stretching outside of school so extra activities may help.

why does he want to never break the rules at school but be terrible at home?!

[panickymum]

Am so glad i found this thread, was going to post something myself. You could be me talking about my ds!! Just had a pants parents evening (nothing i wasnt expecting!!) and am feeling (and so is his teacher) slight despair for very similar reasons. My ds very ahead academically but SO lazy at school, taking longer to do tasks than the children at the other end of the spectrum. Almost needs a rocket up his backside! Behaves well at school but is very challenging at home and trying to keep him occupied without sitting at the computer for hours or playing for hours on my IPhone is hard. He enjoys similar puzzle type games, not fussed about tv at all really, but would live on the computer and IPhone. We have had to put time limits on the use of them or i think he would just sit and play all day, any kind of level achieving games ie angry birds! The boredom is such a big thing, he will have something new ie lego or a new Ben 10 figure and then couple of days we, dont see it again.

Mine has no interest in competitive sports (much to dh disappointment!), like you park great but then winds him up like a top. For him it is more he needs to find some competitiveness.

We going hard core at school, taking minutes off golden time/activities he likes, and at home, IPhone ban. Teacher really supportive and its a very good school so i know the best is being done. I have fears that he is quite bored but because of his laid back attitude he wont push himself forward.

Has anyone else found any good tricks???

[cubscout]

Music! Brilliant for helping teach perseverance. Also good for using new parts of the brain and challenging intellectually. Rising 7 is a good age to start instrumental lessons. My ds is 10 now, plays 4 instruments, 2 fairly seriously and 2 for fun. If he ever complains of boredom I tell him to get practicing.

[panickymum]

ahhh!?! Thanks cubscout, will look at it!!

[PumpkInDublic]

Another vote for Minecraft here. Really chills DS out. Like lego but a huge world, they can build and design, they have to plan against monsters (not too scary though) and follow instructions to build better things.

Bike rides to spot signs of changing seasons and wildlife are lovely this time of year too.

[orangeberries]

So glad I found this thread too, I am tearing my hair out with my DS, last night I went a bit bonkers with him and I find myself having very negative feelings towards him sometimes.

He is perfectly behaved at school and a mind like a whirlwind, he will not stop questioning, he needs to be doing something at all times. He used to be good at sleeping but now is like a livewire, he refuses to go to sleep, last night I was screaming and threatening at 10pm and this morning he was a zombie. He also has issues with eating now - it's like a control thing.

We tried a lot of sports, he hates football or rugby, he does swimming and tennis but they don't seem to do the trick, he plays piano and violin but also nothing seems enough, I think he needs a sport that tires him out completely.

He is also 6 years old.

He can also be extremely rude and hurtful, my other three children would never be so horrible to us, he does get punished and never gets away with it, but it seems to stem from some sort of deep frustration, which I don't seem to be able to resolve.

I am so pleased I found this thread as I feel very down on my ability to parent, despite having 3 other children who don't have these problems it doesn't make it any easier. He is on a waiting list for gymnastics but he's already said he doesn't want to go......grrrr