The Summer List
A few weeks ago, a Facebook friend posted a picture of a list that she made for her children to earn screen time everyday. It was a stroke of genius and so I stole her idea and made my own list, for my children to earn screen time.
I told my mom about this genius plan and she laughed at me. At. Me. Not with me. She didn't believe it would work. Well, hahahaha! She was right, sort of.
Andrew gets up and dashes about doing his chore, making sure nothing of his is in the living room, and will even be active for 45 minutes. Get him to read??????? I spend 45 minutes chasing him off of technology, taking it away, nagging him, having him argue with me until . . . he either decides it's not worth it and finds something else to do, or gives in and reads for 5 minutes and tells me he read for 20. Then reads for 7 minutes and tells me he read for 30. Tells me . . . well you get the point. The thing is . . . he's fine with reading, as long as I read to him. We're reading Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. I read to him for probably 2 hours on Sunday and he was totally fine with it. I am fine reading to him- to a point. I ask the higher level thinking questions, ask him about foreshadowing, make him predict what he thinks will happen. So yeah, he's practicing those higher level thinking skills, but he's got to read on his own. I think it would be more tolerable to shove bamboo spikes up my fingernails everyday than to argue with him about reading. However, I told him the other day, "You can argue with me about this, and dig your heels in, but I'm digging my heels in deeper and I will win."
Alexa . . . she'll get up and read. No worries. She'll look at books on her own, read with me, and practice learning her sight words. Do a chore? Pick up something of hers in the living room? Get dressed and fix her hair?????? That results in wailing, throwing herself on the couch, running away, and sobbing. She doesn't want to do a chore or pick up after herself- EVER.
So . . . the moral of the story . . . summer time for teachers with children is not all laying around living it up, it's taking the same fights from school and doing it at home. Every. Single. Day.
Andrew gets up and dashes about doing his chore, making sure nothing of his is in the living room, and will even be active for 45 minutes. Get him to read??????? I spend 45 minutes chasing him off of technology, taking it away, nagging him, having him argue with me until . . . he either decides it's not worth it and finds something else to do, or gives in and reads for 5 minutes and tells me he read for 20. Then reads for 7 minutes and tells me he read for 30. Tells me . . . well you get the point. The thing is . . . he's fine with reading, as long as I read to him. We're reading Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. I read to him for probably 2 hours on Sunday and he was totally fine with it. I am fine reading to him- to a point. I ask the higher level thinking questions, ask him about foreshadowing, make him predict what he thinks will happen. So yeah, he's practicing those higher level thinking skills, but he's got to read on his own. I think it would be more tolerable to shove bamboo spikes up my fingernails everyday than to argue with him about reading. However, I told him the other day, "You can argue with me about this, and dig your heels in, but I'm digging my heels in deeper and I will win."
Alexa . . . she'll get up and read. No worries. She'll look at books on her own, read with me, and practice learning her sight words. Do a chore? Pick up something of hers in the living room? Get dressed and fix her hair?????? That results in wailing, throwing herself on the couch, running away, and sobbing. She doesn't want to do a chore or pick up after herself- EVER.
So . . . the moral of the story . . . summer time for teachers with children is not all laying around living it up, it's taking the same fights from school and doing it at home. Every. Single. Day.
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