If you have ever, ever taken even the slightest bit of advice from me in the past, I urge you to reconsider ever doing so in the future (Other than this piece of advice: don’t listen to me! Except for that thing I just wrote. Listen to that). I am a miserable failure at homeschooling and should never be asked for advice on any subject. Unsolicited advice from me should be summarily ignored. Move along. There’s nothing to see here.
Captain Science has decided to just not do his work. Not only is he not doing his work within the time limits proscribed by my color-coded schedule, he’s not doing his work within the time limits of the actual day. We have not yet integrated any of our new subjects into the schedule, because we can’t make it through the basic four subjects (math, language arts, history, and science). We have the first chapter of our Latin materials ready to go, and have not even begun to begin them. I have another poem ready for Captain Science to memorize, but I can’t imagine even trying to integrate that into our day right now. My big plans to start art have gone out the window.
Three and a half hours: That’s how long he spent completing one chapter of Life of Fred: Decimals and Percents. You may be asking (if you wouldn’t ask this, play along, because darlins, I am at the breaking point), was it too difficult? Am I pushing him too hard or thinking too highly of his abilities, thus presenting him with overly-challenging materials? Am I asking for too much work in too short a time? No to all of this! He just can’t be arsed to sit down and finish his work. He can’t be bothered to make a freaking effort, even the minimal amount it would take to answer a hand full of questions in Life of Fred.
Instead of the beautiful color-coded schedule, we’re implementing a simple black and white schedule with only four subjects, plus piano. No Latin. No typing. No memory work. No logic. Until the basic subjects are being completed within something resembling their allotted time, nothing extra will be on the agenda. Until all school work is being completed within school hours, no electronics will be enjoyed, including the new iPod Touch Captain Science received for Christmas.
He has the choice to do his work or not, but doesn’t have the option of doing anything else as an alternative. He can decide whether he wants to do his work in a timely manner, but he can’t decide to fill his time with anything other than the work. In other words, do it or don’t do it, kid, but until you do, that’s all you do — I am just plain tired of standing over your shoulder. Own it.
I don’t know if this is going to work or how long it will take if it does work. He’s probably going to be scarred for life. He is certainly not going to be making any forward movement in his subjects for a little while. At this point, however, I no longer care. It’s bread and water education until he starts showing a little bit of freaking effort.
A better homeschooler would motivate her child to learn. She’d probably throw out all this boring stuff and let him do FUN!!! things all day long to inspire a love of learning, and surely he can learn about decimals from helping me shop for groceries! A better homeschooler’s child probably wants to learn and doesn’t ever balk at it. He wouldn’t go through stages of boundary-testing to see if she’ll find a way to make him do the work. She would let him play Pet Society all day long and call it veterinary science, and he’d definitely like her a whole lot better than my kid likes me right now.
Don’t take any advice from me. Go take some from her. I’m doin’ it wrong.
