The kids went back to school yesterday after the winter break. K got a 91% on a presentation she made mid-December. W was so happy to go back to school. His friend from Sunday school will be joining his class today. J was happy to go back as well. She forgot to do a couple of things over the break, but it all turned out ok. They needed 3 books from the same series to bring in and she forgot that (of course I am blaming myself since I read that sheet 20 times and still forgot the books). The teacher let her choose books from the back of the room. J chose the "Boxcar Children" series. I don't know if J will like that, but that's what she's stuck with.
I had the usual hard time getting J to do homework yesterday. She finished 4 pages of math in the car waiting for K to come out of school. She does her math fairly quickly. But any writing or reading is such a chore for her. I had to keep reminding her what time it was and how her homework needs to get done (even though I said I was going to leave it all up to her) and still I found her at 7:30 this morning trying to finish things up. This would be fine if we didn't have to leave within 20 minutes! She was supposed to do a persuasive essay and the one she did was horrible so I erased it and had her do it again - with a little help from me. I hate myself for helping as much as I did. I guess I just do whatever it takes to get it done when I'm rushed in the morning. In the car we went over more times tables.
I told her that from now on, she is to come home from school (we're all home at 3:50pm), have a snack, and by 4:30 she is to go to her room and start the homework - with no breaks. If she takes a break, forget it - she'll never get back into it. This way she's done (hopefully) before dinnertime and has the rest of the evening to relax (or study for a test). I hear other moms say their kids take over 3 hours doing homework and usually have to finish up in the morning. Well, J takes an hour at most to do it all - unless she gets distracted and dilly-dallies. I think being in her room with no breaks or distractions will work well. She also needs to take another online test today. It was due yesterday, but she refused to do it. I cannot force her to do her work. The more I yell, bribe, or threaten, the more she regresses and refuses. I guess I'm a bit afraid to give her sole reponsiblility in getting her work done. I don't want her having to leave this program because of something that could have been avoided and not because she didn't know the work. Then again, maybe she does need to learn in her own style and not be made to conform to this program's rules and requirements. We're just keepin' on tryin' things until I can figure all of this out.
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