Oh yes, the beginning of the homeschool can be interesting. Jose has never homeschooled before. Crystal and Andrew both homeschooled for the end part of last year, but also both have Reactive Attachment Disorder. Those three have all decided to be upleasant for the moment.
First there is Andrew. Andrew is delaying any writing assignments right now. He just never finishes them correctly. He has several ways of doing this. He will refuse to write about the topic and instead write about something competely off the wall. He won't relate a topic to himself that is supposed to be about him. (An example of this is when we read a Berenstein Bears book individually and then they were to write about what the bears learned in paragraph one and then in paragraph two write about how that applies to them personally. He will only write about how it applies to someone else.) Then if those two means won't work for a specific topic then he writes 2 or 3 of the four sentences EXACTLY THE SAME. Oh yes, Andrew is quite a trip. He is now writing the sentence "I will quit acting ridiculous because I am loved." over and over as well as writing words that he needs to learn to spell. It is very hard to pull those tricks with that, but I'm sure he'll figure something out.
Next, let's discuss Crystal. See Crystal is showing huge improvements in her academic abilities. The problem now is that Crystal doesn't tell me when she is done with an assignment or ask for anything that she needs. If she needs assistance, then she says NOTHING. If her pencil breaks, then she doesn't get a new sharpened pencil that is sitting on the table. She also doesn't go sharpen her pencil in the electric sharpener or even ask me to sharpen the pencil. She just sits there and does NOTHING. If she gets to something and gets stuck, she doesn't ask for help. She once again does NOTHING. Now do you see how this could be a problem? I have asked her over and over. I have explained over and over that she is important and should care enough about herself to ask, speak, or do. She still does NOTHING. She is now writing about that, because it is keeping her from completing her work. She is writing the same as Andrew.
Last, let's discuss Jose. He does everything except math for the most part. He's doing the same things that he caused grief with on homework last year. He will do about half of the problems on a page right on the first try and do the rest wrong about 5 times (I promise that I'm not exaggerating) before he does it correctly. I was sitting at the table with him to keep him going on Friday, because he was very close to getting done. I was prodding him a little to keep him moving. I guess the fear of getting done and being able to feel accomplished over came him. Next thing I know, he has a problem like 65 x 28 and he has written 65 eight times down his paper and is going to add rather than multiply. He kept looking at me to make sure that I would notice. I know he wanted me to argue with him. Instead I told him that I understood that he wanted to go sit in his bed. He is now writing the same sentence and multiplication facts for his weekend activity. He admits that he knows those facts and thinks that admitting it should be enough to keep from writing them. I told him that now he will know them better.
Now, you may wonder if any of this makes me crazier or angry. The answer is NO. I have had a lot of things bigger than this in my parenting journey. I know that I am being tested. I am ok with that as long as they are ok with the answer to the test. YES, I LOVE THEM ENOUGH TO GIVE THEM LOGICAL CONSEQUENCES AND NOT GIVE THEM A NEGATIVE EMOTIONAL RESPONSE. I wonder if this test will restart on Monday? lol
Just laugh. It is healthy to laugh.
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