My son has always loved to do his “homework.” However, recently he hasn’t wanted to do it. I didn’t want to force him to do it because I didn’t want schoolwork to turn into something negative for him. At the same time I knew that it was important for me to continue to do academics with him regularly. My first reactions were all negative. I felt guilty about not making schoolwork a daily routine. I also felt frustrated with him because combined with not wanting to do the work he seemed to have forgotten things he’d known for over a year. This of course lead back to me blaming myself for not being more consistent.
My husband stepped in as the voice of reason and reminded me of the excellent job I’d already done with our son. He let me know that he was very proud of the wonderful mother I am and told me that the only way I could “mess things up” now was for me to make an activity that had once been fun for both my son and I a chore neither of us wanted to do.
I tried a few educational games and my son still was not interested. At this point I was really frustrated and I felt like a complete failure. Hubby gave me one last talk and I came up with an idea. If our son didn’t want to do his homework I would do my homework. I got one of his workbooks and his pencil box. I sat down at the table and I started working on a page. I told him I was doing my homework, but I was having trouble with a few things. He was instantly interested. Of course he knew all the answers and couldn’t wait to help mommy with her homework.
It’s been about two weeks and my baby’s love for homework has returned. He’s back to asking me to do homework! I now have one more reason to conquer my time management issues once and for all.
Here are links to some Halloween worksheets and crafts.
