Crystal and Andrew have decided that they are completely incapable of homeschooling right now. It is amazing that knowing there are other adults OUTSIDE is still enough to make them play these games. Our construction will still be going on for a while, so I don't know if they'll pull out of this before then or not.
Crystal is amazingly ridiculous. She is 11 and was doing well with her homeschool curriculum for quite a bit of the time. Now she mysteriously SUBTRACTS and gets a BIGGER number than she had originally. I never knew that something like 1,345 - 642 could give you a number something like 9,803! I just have to laugh about it, because . . . . well, what else is there to do. I know she knows better.
Andrew has also mysteriously lost his brain function. He can't "round" numbers any more. He might round 15 numbers while you have him do them on the board, but when given his workbook he is brain dead. I mean I guess I have to laugh at this too. There really is nothing else to do.
I wish I could tell you that they are distracted, but they aren't. This is just one of their "games". They are completely in control of it and if they chose could do it all tomorrow correctly. They are just little pains. They are still hoping with all of their might that someone might really see them pretending to be dumb and rescue them from this mother who knows they are smart. I tried to tell them that no one really cares, but they have to try it for a while to see for themselves.
Tonight I asked them both about what they hope to accomplish and where they think this is leading. I asked Andrew first off by himself. He said that maybe he could just stay in 3rd grade forever. I told him that while he could stop himself from learning, he would still have to be an adult some day and that by that point he would have made himself truly ignorant. I asked how he would get a job, get a house, buy a car, or buy food. He looked truly confused. I reminded him that every day he wastes is making him one more day behind the other people his age and one day closer to living in a box down by the river because he took away his own opportunities.
Crystal was different when asked about what she planned to do when she doesn't learn what she needs to know and then can't get a job or succeed. She shot back with a head bob and sassy 11 year old tone (still better than a ten year old tone because I really have never had much joy with 10 year olds and they are beyond sassy lol), "Well, I don't know!". I reminded her that she says she wants to be a mommy some day and give her kids a safe, good place. I reminded her that the choices she is making right now are not helping her with that goal. I reminded that you have to learn to succeed and that she seemed like she was working more on the goal of living down by the river in a cardboard box as an adult than she was at overcoming her RAD and being successful and happy.
We'll see what tomorrow holds. Maybe they will think about all the discussions we've had lately on how to finish getting better. Maybe they will think about our discussions tonight. Maybe they will think about all the priveleges they are missing out on right now. Maybe they will do their school work and go back to the good progress they were making in so many areas.
I guess I will find out. :)
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