Friday, October 07, 2005
The New Threat.
I've noticed lately that when we go someplace, I've had a hard time gathering the kids up to get in the car to go home. They've been taking advantage of the fact that it is usually just mom and them. I'm outnumbered 3 to 1. They've been taking longer and longer and longer to get in the car. The other night, this long term slight disobedience culminated in 2 of the children running off into the darkness of the back yard at a friend's house and not coming back for 15-20 minutes despite my yelling at them to come back. Oh, I was angry. So angry, that I decided not to decide on a punishment for this crime until the following day, lest it be way, way too severe. The next day I had a flash of inspiration, an old fashioned idea -- I would make them write lines. My daughter does not like to practice her cursive writing so she had to write 100 times, in cursive, "I will listen to and obey my mother and father." (Yes, this was mom's punishment but I threw Dad's name in there for extra letters!) and my younger son had to write the same thing, only 10 times in print. This is a kid I'm lucky to get 1 written word out of most days, so believe me, this was a punishment for him. For the last 3 days, anytime they start to misbehave, I just say "Do you want to write lines?" and they immediately straighten up. I wonder how long it will last?
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5 comments:
HI--
I certainly understand your frustration. However, just a word of caution. That was the classic punishment by my parents (both teachers) and my public school teachers for all sorts of infractions. As a result I grew to hate the physical act of writing. It wasn't until I went to college and learned computers that I began writing freely again. I still struggle with even writing thank you cards by hand. Good luck!
I have been thinking and I'll probably use it very sparingly and emphasize writing anything they want to on other projects. Actually, I think they didn't mind it as much as they let on. They actually seemed to be enjoying themselves whenever I checked on them. More than likely, this will be an isolated event at our house.
I've done lines ONCE. But what I do instead occasionally is to assign a paper on asking an adult before doing something, or being kind to siblings, or telling the truth. I expect them to explain in their paper why it is important to follow this rule, what can happen if they don't, and to find at least one scripture verse that supports the rule they are writing about. It seems to work. I've only had to have my oldest write two essays, and my third child write one, in 6+ years of homeschooling!
I've used that approach with my oldest before. Hmmm. I'll probably have to pull that one back out.
As a proactive suggestion, I started counting beans here a couple months ago to practice getting to the car in a timely manner. I put two containers in the car cup holder by me. One had beans, one did not. Each time the kids got ready to go in a timely manner we ceremoniously moved a bean to the other dish. This included their getting shoes, going potty, getting buckled, the whole deal. When the beans were all moved over we went and had lunch with Daddy at work. (they love the cafeteria for some reason). I just wanted to create a habit of happily leaving when it was time to go. We had lunch 2 weeks ago and they still seem to be doing great.
Evie
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