Last week I was thinking how great the boy has been doing in school since fall break. He has had very little homework, leading me to believe that he has been finishing his work in class.
WRONG, SUCKER!
I had been struggling as a parent with patience and trying to get through to him this weekend, so I listened to a couple of parenting podcasts (you already read that...) and I decided "You know, Teacher has been really doing a great job. I should send her a thank you email."
Which was replied to with "Coincidentally, I just gave Boy Child a list of the 14 assignments he has not completed since fall break. He needs to complete them by the 19th or he will get zeroes on them and will most certainly fail the subject. Have a nice day! OH, wait- one more thing. He got a Reflection Paper yesterday, so please be sure he returns it."
Siiiiiighhhhhhhh....
Yes. The entire time when we had been asking "Did you finish your homework?" he was saying "YES!" :D when indeed the answer was "No" :(
Why hadn't we seen the reflection paper or the list of missing assignments she had sent home? "I forgot them in my desk"
OF
Course
Since I was working, PU2 (Parental Unit 2) had the unenviable task of discussing this with the boy when he got off the bus. Oh, I'm sure it was a sight to see.
Though she was angelic and drippingly sweet in her tone while discussing this, there were instant tears and denial and of course excuses.
Then came the heartstrings "I'm afraid I might fail 5th grade and you guys won't love me"
It's tough to hear, of course. It's also tough to decode. On the one hand, he's a sensitive little guy. On the other, he is manipulative and knows exactly what to say to drive that knife.
I tend to err on the side of forgiveness, so anyways we will be working with him for the next 11 days to get all the assignments done. And reinforcing that no matter what he does, we will love him. We may be disappointed, we may not like what he does, and he may be in trouble. But we still love him.
(AND we'll still start sentences with prepositions. But no matter what you do, you can't stop me.)
You have so much patience and love for your kids and it is apparent. I liked your punch card approach to chores. Have you thought about extending this approach to boy child's homework or is that already part of the program? Just a thought. Leading with a carrot versus a stick, not that you would ever use a stick.
ReplyDeleteThe chore list... oh that. The Girl child is doing great. The Boy Child HATES IT. That also is a struggle.
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