A 5-year-old is comfortable with independence like never before, and he wants the world to know that. He has opinions on everything, and he’s socially playful. But he also, suddenly, makes you google “why does my 5-year-old hates to study”.

Five Is A Great Age

Learning is as natural to your children as playing with toys and friends. Kids learn through play. So if everything has gone smoothly and sweetly so far and you have had a certain learning routine with your son every morning, you can expect that there will be a strike now.

You can expect tricky emotions about everything else at this age too but you can also meet the sweetest soul come to life. Your once little boy now shows a lot more emotions, and really knows what he wants. As he becomes physically coordinated, he feels a rush of self-confidence. Not only did he synchronize with his body, but his speech also became richer.

So who are you to stop the rush of that confidence? Who are you to stop him from testing the boundaries of everyone around him, including himself? Your role now is to understand the world of the five-year-old and choose his side.

Naturally, a 5-Year-Old Hates To Study

You’ve done everything to make this work, but your 5-year-old hates to study no matter what? It’s a common case among this age. Even those children who once enjoyed the learning process might feel less interested in that now. Why?

Let’s say that parents, teachers and others expect much more from a child this year. Even though your child has grown up, he knows how to tie a shoelace and is well versed in facts much more than other children – he is still a kid.

Expecting him to sit still while absorbing dry facts is very cruel. Condemning him for failing to carry out these orders is horrible. The job of a child at this age is to play, socialize, spend quality time with you and examine the boundaries.

Also, your child is now much more aware of the information around him and will try to examine all of them and see if he picks up a new interest. Your preschooler learns through play. Now, can we start from there?

Don’t push your child

Do not force a child to sit still for more than 15 minutes if he does not enjoy that. Don’t ruin the fun by reading fact after fact to him and then expecting him to remember and recite everything to you. Please don’t punish a child if he doesn’t know something that his peers “have known for a long time”.

You would probably read your favourite book and enjoy popcorns rather than finish a tedious job. So, why the lack of understanding towards the child? You should help him create a healthy relationship towards life. He should long for school, not get bored at the mention of it.

However, there are things he needs to do. You are not a bad parent if you want your five-year-old to finish his homework or learn to write cursive letters. You are a caring parent if you take care of his education and guide him on the right path.

“Play is the work of the child” – Maria Montessori

Remember when your kid first learned to walk, use a fork and name all the capital cities of the world. How happy he was! Yet, he was learning! And he loved it! And did you force it then, or were you more playful towards everything?

3 Golden Rules When a 5-Year-Old Hates To Study

There is not much philosophy about this. Your child is still a child. Only, he now has the power to gather information around him which can make him distractive, but you can also fight the “I know everything” attitude. It’s up to you to figure out which style of playful learning to use now. Here are some tips.

1 Learning routine

Agree with the child when it should be learning time or follow his needs. Try more things. My son easily finished his daily learning activities in the morning, during breakfast previously. This year, he goes to the playroom on some mornings to socialize, so we don’t have much time for that. He also attends English language and chess classes.

So when he’s at home and not in the playroom, this is our morning routine: waking up, breakfast, brushing teeth, getting dressed, playing. If the weather is nice outside, we visit the park and bring our encyclopedias and learn from nature. Sometimes we just casually walk and talk, do yoga in the fresh air or play hide and seek.

Otherwise, we learn during the first snack of the daytime. I know that my son loves to fill out activity books while having his fruit snack. Learning time number two is during the second snacking time, of course. This is also the only time of learning on days when he is in the playroom in the morning. And of course, before bed, we always read books.

2 Division of materials

Realizing that he is making the best progress, and at the same time not feeling burdened, if we focus on a certain topic in one day, I decided to stick to that schedule. So, we reserve Monday for library visits and science and culture activities.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, he has private English and chess lessons at school, and on those days, we usually either just finish homework or do arts and crafts. We do the math on Wednesdays.

Every Friday, I try to organize playdates with friends or family, so we focus on mindfulness and gratefulness and a lot of fun and physical activities.

On Saturdays, dad opens the music room, and then he rehearses the instrument he wants. Also, testing knowledge through fun language activities (in both native and English) is inevitable every Saturday.

As for Sunday, this is our day to escape the routine. During the winter days, we need to find a way for children to expend energy. In a nearby place, there is a beautiful children’s gym that our son adores because the theme is space, so we visit and pay for it for an hour.

Also, on Sundays, I involve him in practical life activities the most and I can see what is holding him back from independence, and figure out how to help him throughout the week. We never avoid snow days, too!

3 Choose according to the interest of your child

Yes, it’s natural that a 5-year-old hates to study. But that only means that you would have to make learning fun. Since I use the Montessori method of discipline and learning, I follow my child’s current interests and provide him with all the information I can on a topic that interests him. Last year at this time, it was space.

This year my son loves animals, making up stories, chess and horror stuff. As for animals, I took a set of books about different animals in the world, their habitats and their way of life. We read them in one breath. With first interest in chess, we bought him one and enrolled him in classes. He loves to beat me, so we play it every day!

I also allowed certain horror toys that we often use as actors with which he and I take turns telling stories. We also joke that we teach our dog various words in English, so he remembers the same. We came up with this game for math recently where we have to complete the math tasks fast so that the monster doesn’t come and eat all the objects from our room!

Improvise, parents. The world is in your hands.