Spring Fever
A mom approached us at a conference, “I just can’t get my son to concentrate!” she said. We asked her to explain.
“Well, he does pretty well until about half-way through the morning, then he just loses focus! I tell him, ‘Look, we only have three more subjects! Buckle down and concentrate and we’ll be completely done with school by lunchtime.”
“How’s that working out?” one of us asked, feeling pretty sure what she was going to say.
“It’s NOT!!!! We can’t even finish ONE more subject!”
We hear that a lot this time of year.
It’s so beautiful outside that even our eyes are drawn off our work and out of doors. The dogs run for the door whenever they hear it open. The children are distracted and act like they have ants in their pants. It’s spring!
For parents of boys, though, it sometimes it seems like Spring Fever is just the worst example of something that happens all the time! Our boys are full of energy, distractible, wiggly, antsy. We wonder if he has ADHD. We wonder if he’ll ever be able to sit down.
Don’t worry!
We’ve got to remember that God made our boys energetic so that one day they could work all day for a living and still come home with enough energy to be a husband and father and to serve in the church and community. Our boys are meant to be energetic!
And they will settle down. That boy that can’t be still a minute will one day be the teen who says, “Mom, can’t you get the little guys to be still? I’m trying to concentrate!”
In the meantime, though, what do you do?
Work with it! Research shows that boys actually learn better when they’ve been using their big muscles. Instead of “Let’s just finish these three subjects,” we’d do better to say, “Hey, run up and down the stairs for me ten times – as fast as you can! – then we’ll do reading!”
If he listens better lying on his back with his feet waving, that’s okay. Let him learn how he learns best! <—Tweet this!
Go outside. Enjoy spring. Let them run and play and explore. Enjoy God’s creation. <–Tweet this!
Spring Fever? We’ve got it, too! See you outside!
Your friends,
Hal & Melanie
Wondering how to motivate your boys to do schoolwork? How to deal with all that energy? Committed to raising godly sons, but wondering what that looks like everyday at home? We’ve been there! Get our book – Raising Real Men: Surviving, Teaching and Appreciating Boys. We’ve got six sons, three all grown up, so you know it’s real life!