9/7/11

When Siblings are the Bad Influence

So, my daughter, Madi, who has absoluetly enjoyed every minute of her 2 years of preschool and is now at her peak of happiness in kindergarten and going to the "big kid's" school where her brothers attend. Her brother, Ezrah, 10 and Jack, 8 started out this way too. They loved going to school; even wanted to go to school on the weekends and on snow days. What happened? Somehow, at some point in time, they started to not like school and if it were up to them, they would rather play Mario Kart from 8:40 to 3:23. Not so much Ezrah, but Jack definately.
So this evening after football and soccer practices, it was homework time. I was delighted to see that Madi had her first reading homework for kindergarten. They attend a Core Knowledge school where most of their homework consists of reading, logging their reading minutes and summarizing. Oh, she's going to love the idea of homework -she's going to think it's so cool to be like her big brothers.
So the boys were gathering their folders and were sluggishly getting started when I said, "Madi, let's see your folder and see what your homework is". I got out her folder and saw that she has a reading log. She did the sound I absolutely hate. Jack invented it. Or maybe Marge from the Simpsons did. UUUUUHHHH. I said, I don't like that sound and if I hear it again, you won't be able to watch your show tonight. So I said, "ok, Madi can you read me one of your decodables? I hear her little munchkin voice.......UUUUUUUHHH. No TV tonight. Then I hear the thing I thought I would never hear uttered from my sweet school-loving 5-year-old. "I hate homework!"
I immedietly looked at the boys and said. 'BOYS!"
So what am I supposed to do? I talked privately with the boys about how their attitude with school and homeowork is affecting their sister's pure sweet soul. Ezrah, the smart boy that he is, says "So am I supposed to lie, Mom? And say I love homework?" "Well, yes", I said, giving him permission to squash his own feelings and lie. At least around his sister. Am I a good Mom? I don't know. I just want my daughter to enjoy her school before the transformation of not liking homework truly starts.

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