We have a WEEK left. (Last day is the 31st) My kids have ZERO interest in doing anymore school work. Garrett has math (they seem to give enough for two years...) one Science Biography to proof read and print and another to write and 1 social studies unit left. (Well he has two but I was told we could skip it.) He is refusing to do any work. All he wants to do is read (fiction like Harry Potter or Rick Riordan) and play with legos. Since he isn't working my "tag-along" doesn't feel like working either. (and he actually needs to finish his Literature unit and do math.) I'm sick of yelling at them, begging them to work and fighting them on this. I'm picking up ALL the legos and putting them away until school is out. Any tips on getting them to finish "strong"??
Beat them? LOL JUST KIDDING!!!! I think taking away the legos is a good start. I would also hold off on computer, tv, video games, etc. Whatever is their "currency" to quote Dr. Phil (and I HATE quoting him!!!). Since they don't have much left to do....it might work! My kids are staring down the barrel of 4 weeks left of school. They were really grumbly last week, but the week went really fast....and we have lots of good things to look forward to when we're done, so I'm dangling that carrot!!!
Bribe? I have a similar problem here. All the ps kids are finishing, but my kids have weeks left because of the transtition to a new home. I'm thinking we may stop for the year even if we aren't done.
I told Carl that I'm pretty much quitting now, too. Phillip took his adverb test today with Easy Grammar, and I think we'll just put it aside until fall. I'll continue reading the history book until it's done, and Phillip wants to do math through the summer. Faythe will also do math through the summer, but that's about it. I want Rachael to do Notgrass Government this summer.
Well, I took away the books and legos. And Garrett finished one biography and actually wrote out the other and asked if he could use it as an "Oral report". Dh and I agreed, so Science and L/a are DONE! He also read his chapters in Social Studies. So I gave him the book back. So he only has Social Studies and Math for the next few days. (He has to hand over the book when I go to bed and will get it back when he is done for the day.) I'm pretty sure the other child will be better since Garrett caved in. We do our weekly check-in tomorrow and I'm not sure about next week but we are close to being done. The thing is PS doesn't get out here until the 22th of June. (My older son is pretty green with envy about that.)
We finished last week and it was tough to keep my son going to finish those last few things. Our public schools have another week and a half, so I reminded him that if he didn't cooperate, we could just keep going as long as the ps. That seemed to work.
Those last few weeks are hard even for me I am way to sympathetic to their lack on interest once the spring comes, so we end up taking our school outside a lot of days and work in shifts while the others ride their bikes or play. It gives them the feeling that we aren't doing as much, when we are covering the same amount of work and I get to be outside where I prefer to be anyway. This year I changed up our science just for the last few weeks so it could be done on nature hikes.
I think that no matter what we do (homeschool or public school) our children are always going to want to NOT do something at many different times when they are growing. If it was a matter of doing something beyond what is reasonable that would be one thing. Since it sounds just like they are "whining", then I say what you are doing is right. They have to know that some things are non-negotiable. I don't like to go to work, but for some reason they expect me to be there. I think consistency is the key. My son likes to "forget" chores. Since I am not home in the evenings (my parents are there), I can't know whether they are done or not (I don't expect my parents to police him with his chores). I gave him a clear cut consequence-if a chore is not done, the next day he has to do that one plus an additional chore. He knows that and there is no argument. It works well. I have told him in the past that if he gets to rude or whiny about schoolwork, that he will have added schoolwork. I have only had to do that a couple of times.
S U M M E R S C H O O L---- the answer to we need a break and only have about a week left of school! ENJOY! Take time off now with the requirement that they get it done, maybe a week or two of half days to catch up on the rest of the work? We take a week in mid summer for this when we need to. Ds thinks it is the norm so when we found we are about a week behind he said "Summer School?" I said yep! ONly Math has to get done cause we have to return it.
