Brayden Preteen Summary: 9.25 Years

This is a summary for Brayden from 9-9.25 years old.

EATING

Eating is going well. He still eats a ton. I am sure that statement will only get closer to literal as he gets older. 

SLEEPING

We went through a bought of him getting out of bed again. He started to get super anxious going to bed. He would go to bed and then worry that he would never fall asleep and that he would be tired the next day. The comical thing about it is that this was summer time, and there was no reason to worry about having to get up the next morning or have things to do. I explained this to him. He still remained anxious. 

Then I discovered he changed his bed routine. He stopped reading after we left the room. He said it was because he wanted to fall right asleep, but I told him that him changing up his routine would throw him off and make it harder to sleep. He didn’t believe me and still refused to read before bed. 

We went for his well-check visit and the doctor talked to him about how things were going and I shared his sleep difficulty. I expressed my hypothesis on the situation. The doctor agreed with me and told Brayden it is important to stick to a normal routine. Brayden went back to his routine and back to sleeping just great. I reminded him that I am somewhat of an expert on sleep and it would behoove him to listen to my advice ;). 

EXTRA ACTIVITIES

During the last three months, Brayden has had a different schedule with it being summer. He took a piano break. We continued on with swimming lessons. He passed everything off and was asked to join the youth swim team they have at the high school. He tried it out and loved it and he has been doing that. I love that he loves to swim. I think it is a sport that offers great exercise that can be utilized throughout a lifetime. It is also very difficult. I do want him to still do a team sport here and there–one where you work together at once to cooperate and uses some hand-eye or hand-foot coordination. He won’t do fall soccer due to swim team, but I think basketball will be okay (basketball is just one day a week here at this age on a rec level, where soccer would be at least 3). 

Brayden did one month of gymnastics this summer. He enjoyed that and would have continued, but with swim team, we decided to discontinue gymnastics. I think gymnastics is great for boys. I know a lot of people start young and I would totally recommend it after seeing how much it helped Brayden with a lot of skills that translated into other sports. 

Brayden did a couple of golf camps through the summer. He loves to golf and enjoyed those. I love summer camps. I think it is a great chance for your child to spend time doing something he or she loves that they can’t do otherwise. I also think it is a great chance to try out something to see if it is something your child would be interested in doing more intensely. 

Baseball was a big part of summer. This was his third summer playing baseball. At the beginning of this summer, Brayden was completely hating it. He did not want to be there. We explained that he could not quit and had to finish the season out. As time went on, he grew to enjoy it and by the end, he was glad he played. He hasn’t decided if he will want to play next summer or not. 

NOTABLE EVENTS

Here are some things of note that happened over the past three months in addition to what I have discussed:

  • We went for a 4-wheeler ride as a family. Brayden has his own and he ended up going off the edge of the road into a canal, but was fortunately caught by a fence. Unfortunately that fence was barbed wire. He only had a couple of scrapes. 
  • Brayden started helping to mow the lawn. This is a hard thing for my husband to allow happen because he is a bit persnickety about his lawn, but he is allowing it.
  • Brayden has also been continually learning to cook. He loves to cook (he wants to go on Chopped some day). It is very nice to have him make some food every so often. 

CHALLENGES

Definitely our biggest challenge is still him wanting to “parent” his siblings. It is such a fight for him to not tell his siblings what to do and what they are doing wrong. I get it–it is a common firstborn problem and as a firstborn, I get it. But we still work on it. Just because it is common or natural doesn’t mean it is right.

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):

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:

7:00 AM–wake up. Eat breakfast. Get ready. Practice piano. Do morning chores. Read scriptures. 

Then free play.

12:00 noon–lunch

Then free play.

1:30 PM–SSR

2:00 PM–IPT 

3:00 PM–free play

5:30 PM–Dinner. Then time with family.

7:00 PM Start getting ready for bed.

8:30 PM–in bed 

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2 thoughts on “Brayden Preteen Summary: 9.25 Years”

  1. lol, you need to tell Brayden that your ARE A SLEEP DOCTOR!! 🙂 Isn't it funny how people from everywhere come here to ask your advice, but your own son has to have the doctor tell him you're right! You are "just mom" to him. lol What do you know about it!?!?

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