Creative Ways to Teach Wiggly Kids

It's possible to teach kids who won't sit still! Sarah Mast shares ideas that have worked for her family throughout the years.

Movement has always been a part of our family’s home school life. From our earliest homeschool days, my two children never stopped moving. I first felt that this constant movement - especially my son’s - was exhausting because of how stimulating it was to me as I was trying to propel them through their work.

More than likely, a veteran homeschooling parent probably told me not to fight it, that it was a natural part of childhood, and somewhere I heard the phrase, “play is the child’s work”. This new concept solidified that veteran’s encouragement to let the children learn by doing. Doing, for my children, involved playing, moving, touching, trying. It did not involve them sitting stock-still for two hours so they could absorb what I was trying to impart to them (sigh).

I didn’t really believe this to be true until I consistently put the idea into practice and began to test my children’s results. It would be distracting to me to read a chapter from a read-aloud (a classic!) while they busily played with LEGO, or my daughter imagining with her doll-house.

I was the grumpy one, until my verbal ‘comprehension tests’ (i.e. just asking them a basic question of what I just read) gave them near-perfect results, every time. They were listening! Oddly enough, their busy hands allowed their brain to slow down and absorb the content.

My children were not yet readers until about age 9, and they needed me to audibly read-aloud stories, interesting facts from a science book we checked out at the library, or even their math workbook instructions, even after that age when their decoding skills were still developing. I couldn’t believe how much they could engage with material just by listening. Listening, ahem, was never my strong suit! Of course, this discovery led me down other paths that included learning styles and then further into learning differences, but those are stories for another time.

Once I realized their comprehension was excellent, even if their hands were busy, I started to ease up on the “just sit still and listen” restriction. It never worked anyway. They’d discover something to pick at or fiddle with. I started telling them to bring out whatever project they were absorbed in: LEGO, a puzzle, magnets, play-doh or putty, wooden blocks, or art-related projects like coloring, drawing, and painting, and we’d get on with our school time. I’d continue on with a read-aloud, asking them questions about what they thought would happen next, why a character did that, and even math questions while they were jumping on the trampoline. This listening while doing was one of the early seeds that helped them learn to love reading, and stories, something that is very dear to me.

As my children have grown older, they have stopped moving so much during the school-day, but even though they are 11 and 13, they have not completely outgrown this pattern. My daughter will cartwheel for hours on end, or jump on our single-person trampoline (yes, I have to strain over the squeak of the springs), and my son will rollerblade up and down our hallway or continue working on his rubix cube. Although our family holds movement as a value and prioritizes it, you don’t have to to let your kids benefit from movement during the school day. Do your own comprehension tests! Let them manipulate objects or make scenes on the floor while you’re reading, or teaching about history or science-related topics! This is the learning-in-motion of the younger years, and those children who need more movement than just a table and a chair (we use an exercise ball instead of chairs!). Everyone will enjoy the time more, and you’ll be amazed at what your kids learn along the way.

Resources for All Ages

*mentioned in post: LEGO, wooden blocks, putty or play-doh, art projects, magnets, puzzles, rubix cube, trampoline, rollerblades, large exercise ball

*tumbling mat, balance boards, slacklines, play silks, playing in the sink (bubbles, sponges, cups), playing with a pet, magnetic blocks, fidgets like squishy balls

*research occupational therapy tools for kids! Whether your child needs OT or not, they have some really fun sensory objects/playthings for kids.