Monday, October 22, 2007
It started when we were on the way home from school. I told Chaya that I had set up private space for her to do her homework. "So, what do you have for homework tonight?" "I have to copy my spelling words 3 times each but I left the list in my cubby..."It's always something with the homework. So I started telling her (none too nicely) how it's her responsibility. "But it's not my problem," she retorts. "Okay, well whose problem is it? Mine? Tatty's? Your teacher's?"
So we get home and I said, "Well, start your hebrew homework." Five minutes later, she's done. "No way," I insisted. "There's no way all your hebrew homework is finished." I looked at the assignment note sent home by the teacher. "What about these review sheets?" "What review sheets?" "I don't know, you tell me." She searched through her backpack. I searched through her backpack. "I don't have any review sheets." Meanwhile, I get on the phone with another mother, who patiently spelled out (in hebrew) every chumash word. There were like, 30 of them. I had to lock myself in a room and take down all these words, while my kids were basically killing each other outside the door.
Dinner time came, and it was a meltdown of nuclear proportions. Corn salad. You would think I offered them a plate of sulfuric acid. Rivky and Chaya both started screaming and carrying on. "I hate this! I'm starving!" "If you eat the vegetables, you get the hot dogs and mashed potatoes." Oh man. they went on and on and on. Fifteen minutes of wailing and dying. A couple of times I lost my temper. "You know, there are children who are really starving in the world! And here I am, making you beautiful food, and you ungrateful children won't even eat it!" And then, this beauty: "Some kids don't even have mothers to make them supper!"
After supper Chaya went back to hebrew homework and I put my boys in the tub. Meanwhile, I got on the phone with another mother for Chaya's spelling words. Srulik was playing loudly and I had to ask her to repeat words over and over again.
We started with the homework again this morning. She didn't finish last night - too hard. I was rummaging through her backpack, thinking, "Gee, Chaya needs some help with organizing." Guess what I found in an outer pocket? The chumash review sheets!
After all that!
Love, Maven @ 
7 Comments:
At 8:18 AM,
Mrs Andy said…
Does the teacher send the homework in folders? Every elementary school aged kid I know, and my mom is also a 2nd grade teacher, uses folders. One color for things mom needs to see, one color for homework and so on. If the teacher doesn't do this you should. It starts a habit, and then you know where to start looking. Good luck!
At 9:46 AM,
Unknown said…
I used to do the same thing to my mother over dinner every night (I still am the pickiest eater), and now my husband does it to me! I like using my mother's line "you don't like it? make something else" (which normally shut me up pretty good, and surprisingly works on my husband as well).
At 4:26 PM,
Wendy said…
Homework - ugh. Now that my guys are bigger, it's on them to get the words, textbooks, whatever, that they forgot to bring home. Much better for me!
I feel your pain!
At 10:15 PM,
Dinosaur Mom said…
My experience with the elder Dino is that my militant "your homework is your job so don't expect me to chase down your lost papers" had no initial impact, but in the past year (now he's in 5th grade) he's become hyper-vigilant about making sure he has his stuff together for school. I hope the trade-off for this self-motivation will not be years of therapy.
At 10:15 AM,
Anonymous said…
Hey, I love your blog! I've been following it for a much of months now, but I've never left a comment until now. I don't have any children (hence: marriagenewbie) but I do tutor a fifth-grader with her homework every night and it's just so frustrating when they don't care! And I always feel like it's my fault when they don't do well. It's like being in school all over again. I thought I was done with all that. Guess not. Good money, though.
At 9:32 AM,
Anonymous said…
Okay. So, when I was a child, which was a long time ago, the teachers would ask the children who always had problems loosing their homework to bring in a clothspin. Then the homework would be visibly attached to the child with a note for the parents. This covered two issues - one, the child was embarrassed to be marked as a homework looser, and second, the parents had to reply to the note. Sometimes old fashioned ways work. These days there are more options than wooden clothspins!!!!
At 9:32 AM,
Anonymous said…
Okay. So, when I was a child, which was a long time ago, the teachers would ask the children who always had problems loosing their homework to bring in a clothspin. Then the homework would be visibly attached to the child with a note for the parents. This covered two issues - one, the child was embarrassed to be marked as a homework looser, and second, the parents had to reply to the note. Sometimes old fashioned ways work. These days there are more options than wooden clothspins!!!!
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