I need to make up a rule chart. That might help with attitude problems. Glad you all are listing yours rules. Gives me ideas. My new rule this year is: read 1 hour, get 1/2 hour TV/Wii/computer time. Usually I find she just keeps reading because she has gotten so into the book,and forgets all about the tv. But then a few days later she wants all her stockpiled hours to sit and play wii games for awhile. I don't mind. I love seeing her reading. Oh, and the reading has to be reading OUTSIDE of the normal 1 hour reading for school. I also don't count hours where she was sent to bed to sleep and she sneaks a couple hours reading by a small light. That is disobeying, much as I love to see her interested in reading...
I don't really have anything as of yet (schoolwise that is)....but ds is only going to be doing jk/sk. I think too many strict rules will just backfire and cause more stress on his part and mine. I want school to be a fun learning environment which has lots of freedom. The main house rule we generally have is that Xbox is for the evening and the mornings and afternoons should be spent with other fun activities.
It helped him to realize it that it wasn't "just Mom". He got better for a while, but he's still a boy and soon had to re-do a paper AGAIN....
My older daughter uses SOS which sets up her calendar year for her. My rule is that she must be one day ahead on all of her subjects. This gives her a "free pass" when ever she wants it. Last year she had a few days where she just didnt feel like doing school work for no real reason (not sick etc) and I told her if she stays a day ahead she can take that day off when ever she wants. Once she gets ahead another day, she can take another day off. Last year she was over 2 weeks ahead and chose to take a week off... just because she can. It gives her more control over her school work and she loves knowing she can take off if she wants. My other rule is that we do not start school work until after lunch. Morning is our time to get laundry, chores and errands done. This helps to make sure my house is semi-clean and laundry is kept up on.
That's funny. My oldest uses SOS, too, and I try to teach him this concept, but when he takes a day off and then has to get ahead a day again, he says, "Then what's the use of taking a day off, if I have to do extra work to get a day ahead again?" I finally gave up, because it wasn't a rule.
There are no cats allowed in the room while teaching. They are a huge distraction! If I see an attitude or frustration, we all have to take a break until I feel like we've had enough time to reset ourselves. Homework must be done by 5. That is about it. We do reward charts and prize box, but they must be good in school and clean their rooms.
I had one set rule for many years " The more you whine the more the time" lol, they got work added for whining, but if they needed help and asked right then they did not get extra work. I am working on new rules for ds2 (13) being only one left in school he has more freedom. I will have No TV till after 3 No gaming until after 3 (these go with depending on it being earned or part of the course of study of course) No whining No complaining or arguing. If he complains or has a melt down over a subject we will pray after he runs around the block once. School comes first then play in our house so the rules will go with that generally.
We have general rules about whining (I HATE WHINING).. we just don't tolerate it at all. And I'm beginning to see that I am going to have to put some computer time rules in place. He used to want to watch a bunch of TV, but now he barely ever does... he'd rather be on the computer. I'm thinking I'll let him have an hour of computer time a day, but it has to be split into 1/2 hour increments... I don't knw... we shall see
We don't have any rules. When we did have rules we had problems (like no TV until after school or no computer , etc), too much whining and begging. So the last 5 years we have done this: School starts around 9-9:30... We have breakfast and chores..then its free time. Computer, PS2, TV , toys..anything they want to do until the timer goes off to do schoolwork. No more complaints and no whining because its out of their system for the day. We don't have any uncompleted assignments to finish because if they are behind on something they do it during lunch. Afternoons are together classes, morning they have their list what needs to be done and they can do it in whatever order they want. They have month long assignments that they must complete on their own, but I check in once a week to see if they have done/started it (IE: book report,calendar work). My dd's are really good at finishing stuff because they just want to be done so they have free time at night and on weekends.
I haven't read all of the responses, so I'm sure these are repeats, but these are our rules: 1. Come to school with a good attitude or you will be sent to your room until your attitude changes. 2. Do not bring toys to the school table or you will lose them for a day. 3. No yelling or you will have to do your work alone in your room. 4. Do your best or you will have to redo your work. 5. My time is valuable - don't waste it! When I am teaching look at me and listen or you will do extra chores for me after school. The basic rule is bolded and the consequence is in italics so that he can easily see what I expect and what will happen if he doesn't obey. When we started these last year, my oldest actually cried and thought I was the meanest mom around, lol.
-listen to the teacher, me, when I am speaking -do not interrupt others when talking -ask questions often about anything, it's a great way to learn -no whining over work -number one rule if you feel like whining you need a hug break and that can be at any point during the school day. I also like to point out that whatever we are learning it's o.k. to make mistakes because it isn't the end of the world. And often the greatest thinkers, artists and so on made many mistakes before they were finished. As someone once said 'a masterpiece is only created when the artist puts it down. And generally that's because they are tired of the mistakes.'
These are really good and I like the consequence and the fact that you have them with the rules. What age are your children?
These were created last year for my then seven year old (actually while he was in time out, lol!). Now he's 8 and I have started my four year old in K this year.
We don't have rules either. He is allowed to begin school pretty much when he is ready but I do make him wake up at a certain time. He's NOT a morning person so it takes a couple hours for him to decide it's time. But that's OK, because I AM a morning person and I get a lot of work done while he's watching TV and eating breakfast. We watch a lot of TV during school - both educational and news - the news is on 24/7 in our house it seems. As far as toys and stuff - oh I'm not big into that kind of parenting stuff. there are some days when he's done school with the parrot chewing on his pencil and the dog in his lap. We don't have uncompleted assignments either. That's just never been an option. I write down what he has to do for the day and when he's done he can go do whatever he wants. It he wants to sit there until 9pm, so be it. But that has never happened. The latest we've ever gotten done is maybe 3:00, and that's only if he doesn't want to start school until noon. EDIT to say this: that doesn't mean there weren't entire YEARS when he complained about everything. Then we might have to stop so he can clean the bathroom before finishing up the subject he was whining about. But we haven't had a bathroom cleaning day in a LONG time now. I'm sort of surprised now that I think of it...Cleaning rabbit cages was a good one too - but those rabbits have been gone for almost 2 years now. And he NEVER got out of school to do those, he just tacked it onto his day.
OK~thanks to you ladies, minus two Bible verses I think I got our school rules done for the oldest two ds. I will be posted wherever school work is done, for everyone to see. I feel sooooo much more ready to start school now. Thanks again.
