Reprogramming

thankless job
thankless job
thankless job


he's not supposed to appreciate this yet... if ever...


deep breaths...

Why yes, I am crampy and bloated and exhausted and still remembered to pick up dog food and essentials. Yes, I put groceries away, fed the dogs, washed the dishes and made dinner while reviewing Ant's homework calendar.

Science homework all week is the study guide.  Guess how many days he's studied?  I don't yell at him for not doing his homework, I just ask him to tell me what a fossil is.  He struggles.  I tell him to look it up.  We get into a discussion about dinosaur bones and Jurassic Park's insects in amber.  I show him about Pompeii and we look at pictures and videos of the volcano in Iceland that nobody can pronounce.  (Eyjafjallajokull, really?)  Then I ask him to read me the first question on the study guide.  He waffles on the answer, and has no idea what the vocabulary word even means.  I have him look it up: uniformitarianism.  We go through four questions- a fourth of the study guide.  He pitches a fit because all his original answers were right.  I said that was very good, but the point was to study, not rush through.  He did not agree, and started arguing with me.

Well, that's not true.  He started arguing with me the minute we dropped Chris off at work.  He was in his usual argumentative mood, and cheerfully battled every single thing I said.  It was nonstop through the grocery store and I finally had to nip it when he tried getting personal.  That calmed him down and he behaved much better until science time.

He tried getting really surly with me again, but I did not take the bait.  I reminded him that I did not yell at him for not doing his homework, he got to pick out some ice cream at the store, we had a movie he wanted to see, and he was acting poorly because I was asking him to do what was assigned.  "You need to go take a minute and think about this," I said.

He went into his room and closed the door.  I wondered if he was going to come back at all, but I did not interfere, just went back into the kitchen and waited.  After maybe ten minutes, Ant came back into the kitchen.

"Well, that helped," he said.

He said he played the keyboard for a while and that helped calm him down.  I think that will be a good lesson in taking a time out when you get upset.  I did not get an apology, but he did listen to me.  I explained "study" does not mean "no homework."  I reminded him that he has an opportunity to do his work on his terms, but if he doesn't do it, he's going to do it on our terms.  Then I asked him what a fossil was, and he told me.  Ah-ha.  Then we watched a movie.


Later that night:

"Chris, where is the popcorn?  I can't find it anywhere!"

He looks at me with a no-duh look.  "It's in the freezer!"

I have the no-duh response.  "OH!"  I laugh.


Earlier that day:

"Chris, take a look at this book."

"What am I looking at?"

"Just open it anywhere.  It's full of hints and info."

"Hmmm."


"So, what did you learn?"

"If you store popcorn in the freezer, all the kernels will pop.  And you don't need to defrost it first."

And it worked.