Brayden Preteen Summary: 10.25 Years Old

This is a summary for Brayden from age 10 to age 10 and a quarter (the first three months of 10).

EATING

Eating continues on as usual. He loves to eat. He is not picky. 

School was just starting at the end of this period. Brayden told me he wants to eat school lunch basically every single day. This is an interesting thing. I have noticed over the years that fifth graders (which is the grade he is in) eat school lunch almost exclusively. Conversely, first graders seem to primarily eat home lunch. 

SLEEPING

Sleeping was great! I think for the first time ever, Brayden did not have a get out of bed streak during the period I am talking about! Yay! I won’t say those days are behind us, but he really is working hard to learn to manage his worries and not need to get out of bed. He typically gets anxious if one of us is gone when he goes to bed. He won’t sleep until he knows we are both home. However, he handled a couple of nights of me going to girls night during this period and, most impressively, a couple of nights of my husband being out of state for a business meeting. 

SUMMER

Brayden had a nice summer. He is on the swim team and swim team is year round, so he had that throughout the summer. He is getting better with his swimming and qualifying for BC meets. He is hoping to get a state time this short course season coming up. He did three golf camps throughout the summer and he loved those. He really enjoys golfing and is quite good at them. He also played baseball and made big improvements there. He is in the kid pitch age group. Last year was his first year in kid and it really made him nervous to have kids pitching to him. He had a hard time staying in the batter’s box. And let’s be honest, some of those kids can really throw very hard but at least one hits a kid every game. 

This year, he not only stayed in the box but he hit almost every time he was up to bat. This was a huge improvement!

SCHOOL YEAR PLANNING

Last year, I really came to know and understand better the fact that Brayden does not like to be too busy. Because of this, I have had him have a very active role in planning his activities for the upcoming school year. We have talked about potential activities and what the time commitment would be. I then told him to think about each and pray about each so he would know which activities he should do and which he shouldn’t.

As he has done this, he has had the surprising answer that he feels like he should not do orchestra this year. He is surprised by it because orchestra is before school and he is an early riser. He also loved being a part of orchestra last year. He loves music and loves playing instruments. There are only two concerts a year. So it isn’t a huge commitment. Never-the-less, he feels like he should not do it. I counseled him to trust the Lord and if he feels like he is being told not to do it, he would be wise to not do it. 

The whole process has been a very good learning experience for him. I think it is a great age for him to do this. I hope he will learn to rely on the Lord for guidance on things like this throughout his life and he is definitely old enough to start learning about the process.

BOOKS
Here are some books he loves (you can see more and keep up on books he reads and loves on my Chapter Books for Boys  board. I also have one for girls): This list contains affiliate links. 

  • Spirit Animals by Brandon Mull. The first book is by Mull, but each book in the series is by a different author. Brayden said that is a hard thing about this series–that the authors change. This is his second time reading the series. He likes it better now as a fifth grader than he did as a third grader. 
  • The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt. Brayden is getting more open to multiple genres beyond the fantasy books. I suggested he read this. He really enjoyed it. The content is mature so I wouldn’t really recommend it younger than 10. A mature 9 year old could probably handle it. 
  • Okay for Now by Gary D. Schmidt. After he had read The Wednesday Wars, I told him he needed to read Okay for Now. This is one of the best books I have ever read. It is so great for learning that you need to be patient with people and that there are reasons people are the way they are and to love them anyway. Same recommendation on the ages for this book as The Wednesday Wars
  • The Unwanteds by Lisa McMann. This is his favorite series right now.
  • Sky Raiders (Five Kingdoms) by Brandon Mull. This is a close second for him. Side note, Brandon Mull came to our school a couple of years ago, and that visit really impacted the interest Brayden has in his books. If your school has the opportunity to have an author come visit, I highly recommend pursuing it!

SCHEDULE

Brayden’s Schedule. Something to notice with older kids, as they get older, you allow them to have more of a say over how their time is spent. This was his summer schedule:

7:30 AM–wake up. Get ready for swim team. Leave for swim team practice.

9:10 AM–get home. Eat breakfast. Get ready.

Practice piano. Do morning chores. Read scriptures. Free Play.

Noon–Eat lunch. Then do some math facts practice (multiplication or division).

1:00 PM–Free play.

5:00 PM–Dinner. Then time with family.

7:30 PM Start getting ready for bed.

8:30-9:00 PM–in bed

We didn’t necessarily have free play going on at all times, but I did let him decide what point in the day he wanted to do independent playtime or reading.

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