Everyday, when Ev gets home from school, we ask him if he has homework and if so, we expect him to do it right then and there. We do not screw around with school work at all. Period. More often than not, he says he doesn't have any. A couple of times he has said he left the necessary books at school. We get on him, but that doesn't seem to have an effect on him. On the nights he says he has none? Well, I have to trust him, right?
So imagine my surprise when his teacher has him call one day last week. The night before was one of the nights he had told us he had no homework. Apparently the next morning, in front of his teacher, the excuse turned to "I left my books at home". Since she is the one doing the assigning,he an't very well lie to her about having homework. So he calls us and tells us he needs his books. Where are they, Evan? He doesn't know. John and I tear the house apart looking for them, but they are nowhere to be found. Shortly after, his teacher calls and requests a conference. Great. We said we'd be there that very day when school was dismissed.
Turns out my sweet, highly gifted oldest son has decided to take a complete strike from homework. She said he had done homework 2 times in 3 weeks, and had not had recess since the very first day of school because of this. I was a little puzzled as to why I didn't know about this beforehand. The books he couldn't find? They were in his desk the entire time, but he couldn't very well tell her that or she would see into his little scheme. I could have killed him!
So that was the night that Evan came home from school and sat at the kitchen table for 4 hours, catching up on every scrap of work he has missed. And the night he lost every priviledge he has: tv, computer, video games, iPod, toys...You name it, and I can bet it's off limits to my kid until he can prove to me that he can manage to do the one job he has.
Homework is always an issue with kids after a certain age. Not sure when it starts but I know it's a problem for my students - who are between 11 and 13. It's like it becomes the least important thing in the world. They become social animals and would rather hang/talk with their friends then do homework. To counteract this, I've decided to create a homework record sheet, so every time a kid doesn't do his/her homework, they have to write what the homework is and why they didn't do it. that way, they can't pretend like they didn't just miss 5 homeworks. I'm also hoping it'll deter them when they see how MANY homeworks they've actually missed and their excuses for not doing it. Also, it's helpful to show/read to a parent when calling them. It's weird she didn't call you sooner, especially since she was not allowing him to go to recess, so she was aware of the situation for a while. Perhaps she was trying to deal with the issue with her own consequences before bringing it to your attention. Maybe she was hoping that would fix it. At least it's still the beginning of the year and you were able to nip it in the bud early.
ReplyDeleteI think it was a combo of that along with them knowing what our family has been through recently. She seemed really appreciative that we were backing her up, which makes me wonder if she has had an issue with how other parents have handled things. I love his teacher--the same one he had for 2nd grade, so she really knows him--but she is really, really young, too. Oh well. We know now!
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