He's up in his room. And I'm down here. Waiting on him to be ready to complete his assignment. He didn't do it perfectly, and he started to cry. Who knew I had ANOTHER perfectionist kid on my hands? Actually, I don't. He just likes to do things well, and when he doesn't, he expresses his frustration. At the second outburst of tears, I sent him to his bed with the instruction to come down when he was ready to finish.
It's been a few minutes and the tears are done. My guess? He's totally forgotten about the whole rumpus and he's looking at a book. Time to call him back to the table.
I've been working through On Becoming Preteen Wise: Parenting Your Child from 8-12 Years by Gary Ezzo and Robert Bucknam. Although Wilkin is still seven, I am beginning to see many of our challenges and disputes through a much different lens. As we transition into the "tweens," he will be accepting a lot more responsibility for his own actions and behaviors as I prepare him for responsibility, not just obedience.
I'm off to retrieve the boy and complete our assignment. Homeschooling is not for the faint of heart, but it is a terrific way to learn more about my son ... and myself.
1 comment:
Oh, my, I know we each have different struggles, but I can relate so much that I have to comment on every post!! (I love the Ezzo books, btw.) We have been doing standardized testing this week. I painstakingly explained to the kids several times that these tests were designed to have some things on them that are too hard, and that it is OK if they don't get every one of them or even if they don't finish in the time allotted. It did no good. Both of my girls get tears welling up in their eyes every time there is a question they don't know, and sometimes work themselves into a frenzy so they can't finish the test. Unbelievable. I don't know what they would do if they were in public school!! :)
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