A new way to encourage good school-behavior + a thought that could pass as advice

Lately it has been difficult to get W to focus. I think the excitement of school has worn off for him already.

Yesterday, he kept asking for chocolate almond milk and I kept saying, "If you are good and can focus and answer my questions, then I will get you some." This wasn't working and he kept getting distracted by clicking pens, rocket-ship pencils and his school badge. I kept asking the same question, giving him the answer, then asking him the question again and getting, "Uuuuuuhhhhh.... I don't knoooowww." Ugh!! So I said, "Okay, that's a minus point!" An idea was born. I got out our little dry-erase board and wrote "Chocolate Almond Milk = 5 points", and I told him as I wrote, that if he can't focus and I have to keep repeating myself, or if he screams at me whenever I take away a distraction, he will get a Negative point. If he is good and focuses and answers my questions right away, even if it is a wrong answer, he gets Good points.

As you can see, this worked very well! As soon as he realized that I was giving him Negative points for negative behavior, he was back at work. He soon realize that he had to work twice as hard to make up for his not paying attention.

He asked for his milk at the beginning of the school day, he always does. He didn't "earn" it until right before his last subject. He really wanted that treat and he was going to earn it. I am hoping that this system will continue to work. It teaches the value of work and it teaches math skills. And if it works, then it will get him in the habit of taking school seriously.

One thought about homeschool. If you don't have a partner that supports you and communicates with you then it is just not going to work. You'll be sloppy and frustrated and your child will not learn anything. It is vital that your husband or wife is on the same page and supports the venture entirely. When you go with a route such as a Classical Education, the parents are the full-time teachers. You don't have a lady on the computer telling you what to learn and grading your papers. YOU are that person. It can be overwhelming when you have to do it all alone. You get frustrated with a non-compliant child and mounds of information to teach. Don't take it all on yourself as an individual. Have your husband or wife take on at least one subject and have them decide when they are going to teach it. Communicate with each other on when this allotted time frame is and keep it consistent. Consistency is the key to learning, if you ask me. Repetition and conditioning the brain to know that, "Hey, it's 5:00 pm and it's time to learn History!" Your child's brain will be in this mode and your child will expect nothing else. If you move it around all the time, your child might get frustrated, thinking, "Don't I usually have supper right now?" or "It is usually my time to play, I still want my time to play!" Consistency and strictness in consistency keeps the peace in a household. I'm not suggesting that everything be completely rigid and fine tuned. You should allow some flexibility and not be so uptight, that is the beauty of homeschool. But when I say that every child should learn at his own pace, I certain do not mean that you just wait for them to say, "I want to learn all about science now!" That's not likely to happen. You need to be the scheduler, and in those allotted time frames, they can go at their own pace. If they aren't finished with first grade math, by the end of first grade, that is okay. As long as you've spent that time every day, consistently, on it, your child has been learning. Eventually they will catch up. If your partner is not on the same page, it can be a disaster and your child will get very confused.