Suckered
A couple of weeks ago Link’s teacher spoke to me for a moment and told me that Link hadn’t been finishing his work at school. During reading time he’d sit and distract himself. He never disrupted other students, but he didn’t work either. She and I had a talk with him and then I heard no more about it. No notes came home, no unfinished papers came home, so I assumed that the situation had improved. Silly me. Link had been deliberately “forgetting” to put his homework folder in his backpack. It came home today with nearly two weeks worth of unfinished papers in it. Link and I had a “little” talk.
Now every school day he has to bring his homework folder home, even if it is empty. If he “forgets” it, I’ll send him back for it. If he finishes his school work during class time, then he gets a stamp on his hand. If he doesn’t finish the unfinished work has to come home and be completed BEFORE he is allowed to play. Homework can be completed in the evening, unfinished schoolwork comes before play time. So every day I will expect either a stamp or unfinished papers. I’m fairly confident that this solution will work for Link.
Now I’m just tired and worn out. I love having smart kids, but I have to work hard at staying cleverer than they are. Link suckered me good for the last couple of weeks and now I have to make sure that he can’t get away with it anymore because in the long run that would be bad. In theory the kids will eventually thank me for all this blatant manipulation.