Homework

My son is doing a bit of catching up this summer with some homework.   Or rather I’m not certain if it’s catching up or to give him a boost at the start of the school year.   Or maybe it’s not that at all as his teacher said all the students have work they’ve been sent to do over the summer.   Either way, every day he spends a little bit of time doing schoolwork.

He’s being rewarded for his work with stamps, which he can use as currency to buy things.   Depending on the day or his mood, the lure of stamps can be a driving force all the way to negligible.   If my son would sit down and put his mind to the work, he could be done very quickly, but some days it goes more slowly.  

He’s making progress though.   The work is all reading, writing and following directions-based.   He’s able to read much more quickly now and his writing skills have improved where he isn’t tired by  longer amounts of written parts of the assignments.

Yesterday he celebrated finishing the first workbook.   He’s been working on another workbook at the same time and he’s a little over a week from finishing that one as well.   He does feel a nice sense of accomplishment from getting the work completed.   It’s doing it that he’s not so keen on.

His sister is rather the opposite.   She wants to do homework.   Asks for it and then asks for more when she’s completed the first set I’ve given her.   Her braillest prepared more work for her last school year than her class got to, so she sent it home for the summer in case my daughter was interested.

And boy, is she interested.   I’ve had to hide the folders so she doesn’t do them all in one day.   When she’s presented with a lot of work she gets excited about doing it and doesn’t do it thoroughly.   Today she found my hiding place though.  It was in my standard spot on the counter, but she can’t see it so I didn’t expect her to find it.  I suspect she enlisted her brother for help though.   I came into the dining room to find her with two works selected, laid out on the table and the colored pencils ready to  start.

The Big Boy Update:  I asked my son to hand me something from the drawer last night.   He told me, “get your own stuff.  It’s not like I’m your assistant.”   I couldn’t help but laugh.   I told him I liked that phrase and to beware, I was going to be using it on him in the future.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Over the Fourth of July holiday we were visiting my in-laws.   I came into their kitchen and some music was playing from their Amazon Echo speaker.   I told my father-in-law I liked the atmosphere music.   He said my daughter had selected it.   He told me she said, “Alexa, play some nice music.”  Alexa responded with, “Here’a playlist you might like: Classical Folk Music”.