I was not mentally prepared to navigate homework with Jacob.
Jacob has several homework assignments this weekend:
1) Play a game that involves numbers. Check. Done. Easy. We played “Double Shutter”- a fun dice game.
2) Write a story about your family and draw a picture to go with it. This is the one I was not mentally prepared for. It was a huge learning experience for me!
• Duration: 1 hour
• The story: “We were at Disneyland and it was hot. Mama and Daddy surprised us by going to Yogurtland.”
• Difficulty level: hard!
• What it required: a ton of patience, a ton of guidance, a ton of encouragement, a ton of reminders to Jacob to stay focused, stay seated in an upright posture, to hold his pencil properly, to try to stay between the lines, and how to write certain letters.
And a TON of my own personal mental dialogue: “Don’t freak out!!! Yes, he’s dropped his pencil to the ground 6 times already….don’t freak out!!! If he feels your stress, these homework sittings will not be positive times together. Don’t stress. Let it go. Be cool. Be excited. Be encouraging. Yes, we’re moving into one hour on this assignment- don’t freak out! Completion with excellence is important. Don’t tell him to hurry scurry now just because it’s taken so long. Let him finish well. Don’t let the clock rule your decision to move on. Okay, yes, try to ignore the fact that he wants to erase his entire drawing. Yes, I know he wants his rollercoaster to look different- he’s not satisfied with his drawing. That’s good. I mean, no. Not good. Yes, he wants to draw it again because he wants it to be better presented. But, wait, this is going to take f-o-r-e-v-e-r. He hasn’t even started the drawing about Yogurtland……”
And so the journey begins of helping Jacob learn how to do homework…….
We still have one to go:
3) Write a story about the best part of your 1st day of school.
This will be interesting. I’ve learned we better pace these things out. No procrastination is going to be allowed in our house. If not, I’ll go off the deep end. Just sayin’. 🙂
thewallises 
Marina,
Homework was the biggest change to my teacher self when I became a mamma. Many teachers who do not have their own children (and unfortunately many who do) just do not see that sometimes it’s just not worth it. The relationship of the child with his/her family is so much more important!!! Homework pressure isn’t productive (sometimes). Sometimes it’s destructive. We need to give parents the permission to walk away from it with their little ones if need be. But then we know where that would end up…..Your self-talk was GREAT! Hang in there!
Dyana M.