Well, I don't, but my first grader does.
While this is the third week of school, it's the first five-day week. And the typical first-grade transition kicked in, big time, on Tuesday.
Tuesday, J announced that he hates school.
Yesterday, he hated his jeans because they kept falling down. These are the same size 7 Slim jeans that he wore to kindergarten last year. He apparently has grown taller without gaining weight. I told him to eat more at lunch. J failed to appreciate my sparkling wit.
Today, J wanted to watch TV as soon as he got off the bus, but I told him that he couldn't watch until he did his homework. Commence the Stage Three Meltdown. He hates school, he hates homework, everything is stupid, he doesn't like me, blah blah blah.
Deep Breaths. This too shall pass.
1 comment:
Tried posting a comment & got a service unavailable page, so I don't know if it went through or not. In case it didn't, I'll type what I remember of what I wrote.
I understand where you're coming from with the whole do your homework before you play routine. We all had it when we were kids.
But I'm thinking that you may want to reconsider that a little.
What I mean by that is he's going through a really hard transition stage right now. He's not used to sitting at a desk all day. Little play time. Little exercise. Yes, there's gym and recess. But, let's face it, this is full day school. And after a summer of play at the lake, it's a big change for him.
Beth's afterschool program at the Y starts with half an hour of play time in the big rec area downstairs. A full half hour of running around, screaming, going nuts. Half an hour to blow off steam. Half an hour to burn off all the pent up energy.
THEN they have a 15 minute snack time. THEN they do their homework. After that, they play again.
Let's face it, they don't have much by the way of homework. It won't take long. And giving him half an hour to do whatever he wants isn't going to kill him.
Besides, remember back to when you were single and working? When you got home from work at the end of the day, was the first thing you wanted to do more work? Chores? Errands? Cooking? Cleaning? Or did you want a couple of minutes to decompress? Me? I want a few minutes to sort through the mail, sit down, veg for a bit, you know?
You're being a good mom. And you're instilling the proper values in him. And you're doing the right thing by getting the homework done early. I'm just thinking that maybe he needs a little "me" time when he first gets home from school?
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