Homework Woes
Homework stinks. It sucks. And I'm not saying this in a general ha-ha let's be funny and take the kid's side. I mean that for me, personally, as a mother and human being. Homework is literally sucking the life out of me.
After the first couple of weeks of school, I realized that going home after school and thinking the boys will do their homework was a pipe dream. Every day they'd come home, have a snack, get distracted by the dogs, and then would see their friends outside playing. And getting them to sit down and focus on homework simply didn't happen. I might as well have told them to levitate. Their friends weren't doing homework so why should they? (Because your friends do homework after dinner, and you are involved in sports so that timeline isn't an option!)
So I made a change and we now stop at the library on our way home every day. The boys and I sit down at a table in the Children's Library, and they have to finish up their homework. Everything except Colin's reading (which I allow him to complete at home since he has to read for 20-30 minutes each night). It isn't perfect, but has been better than when we were trying this at home, so we're sticking with it.
The boys still complain about homework, but we're getting it done and then when we get home they either get ready for whatever sporting event we have or they can go outside and play without Mean Mom calling them back inside to finish their homework.
Once that portion of the battle had stabilized I then informed the boys that I would now be imposing quality controls on homework. Messy handwriting would not be accepted. Writing math calculations over the problem (general sloppiness) wasn't OK. And if Mean Mom didn't think they were doing their very best work then they would do it over. Again and again if necessary, until I felt that they had done a good job.
This met with further resistance but when they eventually realized that I was going to erase their sub-standard work (over and over and over and over) it started to sink in. ... gasp... mom really means it! Handwriting gradually started to improve, and things smoothed over a bit. I still get a lot of grumbling, and the occasional "I hate you" which I assume means I'm doing a good job.
I knew it was really sinking in the other day though. Ryan was having a cranky day and hadn't finished his homework at the library, so he had to bring it with him to the gym. I was taking a class at 6:15 so he had about a half hour before his swimming started, during which he needed to do his work. Colin also had some reading to do, so I informed the girls working there that the boys couldn't go into the video game area and instead needed to do their work.
The girls were fine with it, and started talking to the boys about homework while I signed them in. The conversation went like this:
Playroom Staff: You don't have too much homework, do you?
Ryan: Actually I hate Wednesdays and Thursdays because my homework is writing SIX sentences.
PS: Well, just do it fast and then you're done. Right?
Ryan: *DRAMATIC SIGN* But I have to do it RIGHT or I'll have to do it over!
And that's how I know that I'm getting through. You can do a slip-shod job, and then do all your work over again, which ends up taking more time and effort. Or you can take your time, do a good job the first time, and be done with it.
I'm calling this one a victory for mom!
After the first couple of weeks of school, I realized that going home after school and thinking the boys will do their homework was a pipe dream. Every day they'd come home, have a snack, get distracted by the dogs, and then would see their friends outside playing. And getting them to sit down and focus on homework simply didn't happen. I might as well have told them to levitate. Their friends weren't doing homework so why should they? (Because your friends do homework after dinner, and you are involved in sports so that timeline isn't an option!)
So I made a change and we now stop at the library on our way home every day. The boys and I sit down at a table in the Children's Library, and they have to finish up their homework. Everything except Colin's reading (which I allow him to complete at home since he has to read for 20-30 minutes each night). It isn't perfect, but has been better than when we were trying this at home, so we're sticking with it.
The boys still complain about homework, but we're getting it done and then when we get home they either get ready for whatever sporting event we have or they can go outside and play without Mean Mom calling them back inside to finish their homework.
Once that portion of the battle had stabilized I then informed the boys that I would now be imposing quality controls on homework. Messy handwriting would not be accepted. Writing math calculations over the problem (general sloppiness) wasn't OK. And if Mean Mom didn't think they were doing their very best work then they would do it over. Again and again if necessary, until I felt that they had done a good job.
This met with further resistance but when they eventually realized that I was going to erase their sub-standard work (over and over and over and over) it started to sink in. ... gasp... mom really means it! Handwriting gradually started to improve, and things smoothed over a bit. I still get a lot of grumbling, and the occasional "I hate you" which I assume means I'm doing a good job.
I knew it was really sinking in the other day though. Ryan was having a cranky day and hadn't finished his homework at the library, so he had to bring it with him to the gym. I was taking a class at 6:15 so he had about a half hour before his swimming started, during which he needed to do his work. Colin also had some reading to do, so I informed the girls working there that the boys couldn't go into the video game area and instead needed to do their work.
The girls were fine with it, and started talking to the boys about homework while I signed them in. The conversation went like this:
Playroom Staff: You don't have too much homework, do you?
Ryan: Actually I hate Wednesdays and Thursdays because my homework is writing SIX sentences.
PS: Well, just do it fast and then you're done. Right?
Ryan: *DRAMATIC SIGN* But I have to do it RIGHT or I'll have to do it over!
And that's how I know that I'm getting through. You can do a slip-shod job, and then do all your work over again, which ends up taking more time and effort. Or you can take your time, do a good job the first time, and be done with it.
I'm calling this one a victory for mom!
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