My Unmotivated boys are BACK... Enjoyed when they were actually willing to do their work but that was short lived. Now, I know I'm not the only one with teens who either rush through their work to get it done or just don't do it at all... I'm curious what you do as a punishment.... Here's the deal with mine.. Lesson plans are done 1-2 weeks in advance.. All are placed in a binder and the book is open to the days lessons.. They are to check off as they are finished. I don't always check their work right away. As a matter of fact I decided to keep that for Fridays when I do my planning. Anyhow, They are wise to the fact that I don't check them. They think they are getting away with not doing their work. I told them a few weeks ago when I started noticing the problem again, that if they didn't do their work I was going to give them Saturday school to make it up and they would be grounded for the weekend... Now, I have been checking them every day.. But keeping it to myself. What I have found is that my oldest didn't do ANY of his math ALLLLLLLL week!! His vocab and spelling hasn't been done either. I don't really know about the other courses but I have a feeling that those have not been done either.. Ds14 has only done part of his assignments in math and skipped his spelling as well.. I'm not giving them a chance to hurry and do the work before Friday so they don't get grounded.. I know I'm such a HORRIBLE mother!! MEAN too.. But these kids are old enough to know better and they are only getting worse.. I'm going to torture myself too this weekend by doing this cuz hubby is going to be gone.. What else can I do?? We have Fridays off because we travel to our new homeschool group classes. So I figure that I would wait until after we dropped off the other family and walked in the door and then break the horribly sneaky news to my procrastinating boys.. They should be able to get most of their work done that afternoon. And then finish up on Saturday.. Gonna get them up early. No sleeping in.. When they finish I will have a list of chores to be finished by the end of the day then an reading assignment.. for when they are "bored". Am I being too hard on them?? What would you do?? I have given them chance after chance and I'm tired of not seeing any progress in their work.. My 15 year old is on lesson 5 LESSON FIVE in his math.. SERIOUSLY!! THis is because I kept giving him chances.. Not happening anymore.. And the stupid answers given when they are rushing through their work.. Good grief!! Ds15 biology question: what name is given to nonwoody plants.. His answer... Wanna guess???? NONWOODY!!!!!! GRRRRRRR.....
I don't have a teen so take what I say with a grain of salt. What are they "finishing up" their school work to be able to do each day? I might make their days incredibly boring until they show they can keep up with their work consistently for several weeks. I would do no electronics or gadgets, no friends, no outings, etc. I would also require them to make up any past work that was not completed. If they can get most of their week's worth of school work done in one afternoon and the following day it may be worth it to them to "fake it" the rest of the time.
I only have a 7 year old, but I do not think you are being too harsh. They knew what had to be done. Stand your ground and show them you mean business. Maybe you will just have to subject yourself to more work for a while and treat them like younger children. Tell them they have to show you each assignment as they do it. They are not free to do as they wish until you have seen all of their work for the day. Take away the freedom of schooling and make it under your rule. But then again, I have no experience with teenagers, so hopefully someone with more experience can help you out.
Ha, And another thing is that they will spend the majority of the day up and down.. Getting a drink.. Going to the bathroom.. GRRRR. I'm going to take those freedoms away for a while. They have to do their work before they get a bathroom break. I am just so tired of this.. I have 4 kids and the younger two are the ones who do their work. I really should be spending more time with the younger one but instead I'm wasting MY time on babysitting teens.. Good grief!! This is the sorta stuff that makes me want to throw my hands up and quit..
