Homework Woes return with a VENGEANCE… but It’s a Timely Reminder.
Posted by: mamasan on: January 7, 2009
It was a rough day that ended well. I gave S a couple pages of maths (well ok, 14 pages but v v easy ones and no problem sums…) to do which saw him complaining from start to finish. Basically he complained 8 minutes out of 10 and the remaining 2mins were used to do his work. Argh.
Tried my best to keep my voice down and the cane far away but it was h a r d listening to speeches minute-by-minute like :
“I really hate today, it’s my worst day”
“I wish I wasn’t born then I don’t need to do any work.”
“Ohhhh it’s soooo hard.” (and that for a super simple question which he knew how to do but too lazy to do working)
“Write down the answer for me.”
“I want to die and go to heaven.”
“Can I rest? I’m so tired.”
“Groan. Moan. Grumble. Whine. Complain.”
Ugh. I don’t remember complaining half this much as a kid, and my parents didn’t ever have to discipline me over my work. And lest you think I’m a tough master, I let this kid have a couple of 10 mins breaks. After all, school only just started and he’s only in P2.
TV time got confiscated, which only saw S raging mad that lasted half an hour of pure rage, and I retreated to my room to keep both of us safe. Door nearly got pounded down and I contemplated doling out a hard caning thereafter. Which I decided not to since it’s been consistently done in the past to no effect. He still does it and the rage is still there. It simply did not address the issue.
Fast forward 2 hours to bedtime.
We finally reconnected during bedtime after some serious soul-searching (mine), and we discussed a solution – he hates doing long chunks of work and I need him to do some practice. We will try out – daily – Eng/Chinese/Math – all subjects per day but only 2-3 pages max per subject according to difficulty. Not like entire chapters at a time like today. This will hopefully let him have the impression of “doing less” although we’ll actually be doing about the same, but at shorter chunks, and daily. Hopefully this way we can complete a chapter of each subject in the space of a week instead of a day.
Whew. I sure hope I can keep this up. I know it’ll be much easier just doling out chapter by chapter of assignment to do but it’ll be worth it if it can help him work faster and cheerier.
5 Responses to "Homework Woes return with a VENGEANCE… but It’s a Timely Reminder."
January 8, 2009 at 12:21 am
Ah. Can share how do you use FIAR on the English part? Is it still book-based then grammar from there?
January 8, 2009 at 3:42 am
I am fighting blood pressure issues… boiling hot here at the moment. Spent 1.5 hrs trying to get him to do 4 qns… finally he does them.. in like 40 mins! grrrrrrr… keep trying to arrange fun things for him before school and having to cancel them cos he just won’t sit down and do the work!
breathe breathe breathe….
January 8, 2009 at 12:46 pm
I lost my temper today with S too. Already broke down his homework into minute chunks as mentioned, but he HAD to stall and make things difficult again by whining about writing and reading out loud his Chinese re-arranging sentences. come on, just 5 of them, don’t even need to write out words, just write numbers can already, still complain so much.
Told him I am fed up with doing homework with him and I’ll search for an after-school care centre for him to go to which will ensure he does his homework and he has no one to whine/complain to and no choice but to obey.
Probably not the best reaction to his whines but he was remarkably compliant and meek after that. And I was able to bring in the “can-do kid lesson” with his maths. Which caused everything to end up rather peacefully.
Ummm. Not too sure about how appropriate all that was. Parenting really isn’t a textbook-solution journey isn’t it.
January 8, 2009 at 1:46 pm
YC, I use FIAR mainly to teach vocab and some grammar. I share with you more on Sunday. Perhaps will borrow my student’s English notebook and show you. (I use FIAR with my students too 
)
January 7, 2009 at 2:07 pm
I strongly believe your “divide and conquer” should be better than doing big chunk.
Me not expert since ds only P1. But that’s what I’m doing with him too. But since only P1, 1 day 2 subjects. English, I’m still using FIAR to bring in some joy tom improving English.