Homework is proof of the devil. Seriously. I HATE it. Forget what the kids think of it.
I’m one of those parents who don’t actually do the work for their children and make it their responsibility.
This is for a number of reasons – firstly because I hate it and secondly because my understanding of homework is that it is meant to be for their benefit in going over work they have done during that day/week.
But then there is Oscar.
Tonight I felt like Attila the Hun of parenting.
For starters, it’s Thursday, and there were several worksheets not done and last nights word list only half finished.
I made him do it all.
I am really really worried about his letter reproduction. His writing is appalling. And just so you’re all aware of what we’re working with, Oscar doesn’t (can’t?) write words or sentences of his own volition, we’re still in the land of copying.
And that worry is only exacerbated by me having no idea on how to aid/assit/teach him to write.
He looks at a letter – say a z, a y, or an s and his reproduction of it is woeful. WOEFUL. APPALLINGLY BAD.
He still doesn’t grasp the idea of writing letters next to each other and along one line. He just can’t.
I of course, handle it all the wrong way, getting angry and/or frustrated. I know we should go back to the letters he can do and have some victories. Fine. But at the end of the day, he has to progress at some speed, no matter how slow, so long as it is moving forward.
So why do I feel his writing is actually in reverse gear and he’s flooring the pedals while I scream “you’re going backwards, BACKWARDS”.
Anyway, we got to the end and we had a chat – I told him so long as he could look at his work and think “I tried my hardest” and “I did my best” it doesn’t matter if it is right or wrong.
God help us all.
Month: May 2007
The passage of time
A few years back we tried to get the boys involved in AusKick – the young kids program for Australian Rules Football.
Because this here is a Carlton Blues household, trapped in a city of Sydney Swans.
Anyway, the boys HATED it.
In fact, one week we were going to training and they started screaming in the car that they didn’t want to go as we turned into the street on which the training field was located.
So loud were their protestations, that Chef’s mum and dad, who had come to watch the boys, could hear them screaming before we’d even parked.the.car.
Getting them out of the car was one thing, getting them to participate was another.
The two of them would sit in the middle of the paddock picking at blades of grass in passive resistance that would have impressed Gandhi.
So fast forward three years.
Felix said to me a few months back, can I play AusKick this year instead of soccer.
Soccer just sort of happened, with the same team as last year reforming and well, it was just easy.
Then Chef got his new job which gave him Sundays off. Which means watching Sunday arvo footie.
Combined with the whole thing of the boys lurching into that age where their dad is a G.O.D. (Felix to me the other day: “When I’m a grown up and be a Dad, a cool dad, just like Dad is.”)
Then Chef and he went to the Swans game at the SCG on Sunday.
And Felix says to me last night, “Can I quit soccer and play AFL?”
We have a chat about how he can’t quit soccer because the season has started and it would be letting his team down but that I’ll investigate when AusKick is on. And maybe he could do both.
Yeah, because we all know how much I love weekend sport.
SO it turns out, AusKick train at the same field as before, just downt he road from us. On a Wednesday. Chef’s day off.
And they play on a Sunday morning, Chef’s day off.
So now, we’re playing AusKick and soccer.
They went to training tonight and you should have seen how animated Felix was tonight.
It was only outdone by his father’s excitement. “He’s got a KILLER kick!”
And at dinner tonight?
Age 7 years and 6 days Felix announced, “FINALLY I know what I’m going to be when I grow up. An AFL player. And play for Carlton.”
Childhood.
If there’s ever an excuse…
tonight’s shopping list for chef:
Rum ‘n Raisin ice cream
Strawberry ice cream
Choc w/ grand marnier ice cream
whipped cream
glace cherries
crushed peanuts
behold:
YUMMMMMMM
(Postscript: please note, as someone who doesn’t like ice cream, this is quite the rarity, so I do enjoy it during its small window of favour.)
shout-out
I need boys names.
Any name you really liked but didn’t get to use.
And so on and so forth…
PLEASE.
What I’m watching
Virtually no commercial television because – eugh.
Re-runs
Sex and the City
Seinfeld
Everyone loves Raymond
Whenever I can
Inside the Actors Studio (tonight they’re showing the Robert Downey Jnr interview and OH MY…swoon)
This Old House (although I always miss it)
Grand Designs (I think Kevin McCloud is one of the thinking woman’s many crumpets)
What I should but at the moment just hurts my head
Four Corners
Australian Story
But something I caught the end of tonight and found absolutely mesmerising
Choir of Hard Knocks
This guy – Simon – sang a verse of Hallelujah. Gripping.
Seriously people, Robert Downey Jnr is just H.O.T.