After banging my head against the wall a few times, I decided that the best lesson is the self-learned lesson. Rather than lecturing, discussing or soliciting input from the rebel, I simply passed a series of my own "tax acts" that set in place general rules of behavior. Once those rules are in place, he will either comply, or suffer the consequences of more taxes.
Enough silly metaphors.
The new rules are:
1. Matthew is a self-learner, who is capable of learning on his own with direction from an adult.
2. As a result, Mom will create (within our agreed-upon guidelines) a set of lessons for him to accomplish each day.
3. Matthew will be responsible for completing those lessons correctly and completely before he will earn any TV/Wii/DS/computer/Kindle time.
4. Any lessons not completed correctly must be completed or redone.
5. Any lessons not completed correctly by the end of the day will roll over to the next day.
6. If any lessons remain to be completed correctly on Friday, they must be completed correctly before the field trip, or the filed trip will be lost.
7. Any lessons not completed by the last day of school, June 8, will be completed over the summer.
8. Some lessons require mom to teach. If Matthew yells or becomes disrespectful while mom is teaching, worksheets and quizzes will be substituted.
Okay, so I'm an optimist. I'm really wondering how long it will take for him to realize that the lessons are not going to go away, and that his smartest move is to sit down and get them done first thing in the morning. Right now it is 1:15 in the afternoon, and he's not even half done with today's assignments, that could have been done completely by now. The only bright spot is that he is sitting down to do some of the work sporadically, perhaps realizing that it's not going away.
One thing is for certain: it may be a really long summer.
Susan
www.susancalistri.com
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