Catching Up is Hard to Do.

I have been trying to teach my children something that I didn't understand until my 20's, and now in my 30's I am still working on. You would think, that once the light bulb flashed, years of doing it wrong would have no bearing on the matter, I could just *Poof* get it right. Unfortunately, lazy ways are "easy" until they pile up and become SO MUCH that they are overwhelming and you don't even know how to begin.

They wouldn't have a lesson to learn, if there wasn't real life application. Every day, the children have a page or 2 to do in each of their books, to march their way through their book studies. They know this, we've been doing it this way for many years now.

A while back, I decided to condense things, since I was noticing that some subjects were getting "forgotten" in the mix, or entire books mysteriously dissappeared for days on end.  A new hole punch and some binders were purchased, and I made a binder for 4 of my 5 children. Each section had 4 weeks worth of work (with some sections only needing 4 days of work per week). I wrote out a list of the books and pages assigned, and then made a checklist chart for them to mark of a square as they did each assignment each day. I came along on Fridays, and inspected the binders, highlighting where they really were at by my verification on the check chart.

The first few days were fun! They loved the new plan, and they worked hard to knock out their work each day. I talked to them about how if they diligently worked at this pace, they would get through the next 4 weeks with very little stress. They heartily agreed, and happily made their marks on their charts. By the first Friday, they had kept up pretty good! I was impressed, and had high hopes for the new plan. I couldn't wait to show them the surprise about the new set up when it was time to make the next binder refill!!

The second week, I started noticing little things. Certain children had too much "free time", getting sullen and moody as though they were stuck in video games rather then education. I checked the checklist, and saw proper progression, and left it alone. 'I know my children are smarter then to try to play me for a fool," I remember thinking. I would know on Friday.

When Friday came, one binder was still stuck on last Friday, and the other binder was all over the place. Some subjects were right on track, yet other subjects hadn't progressed at all. (The little kids are not in the binder checks, because I walk them through each subject at their own pace). I gave the kids a pep talk, praised the good and disapproved of the bad. I told them that they had to work harder, if they had any hope of keeping priveleges.

So far, the natural consequences are light. Their work is compounded, and their priveleges still stand... tenitively. This would have been the perfect time for them to get in gear, and at LEAST do the minimums in each subject, so that they at least kept up.

Another week progressed, and glasses came in. All excuses were finally off the table, except we have been sick since November, so not much got done by one, but the other gave the appearance of doing studies her all... for 2 weeks. On binder inspection day, I was horrified to see how far behind they were!!! They had 3 days to complete 2-3 weeks worth of work!!

They cried, complained, moaned, whined, found 30 reasons they couldn't possibly work. I pushed. I don't like being lied to. They worked VERY hard, but failed to meet the deadline. They now have 1 month to complete History and Math for last month, AND all their studies for the current month by the time their Teacher returns. They lost electronics, and the child who lied and faked it is grounded until certain things are complete.

You would think, that they would remember how good it felt when they were keeping up. You would think they would WANT to knock out little bits every day to make progress. This is not what they are focused on though. They are focused on the incredible amount of hard work they have ahead of them (especially the child who loathes her text book).

Today, I put together the binders. I pulled out the stacks of finished work from the binders. I pulled out the next sections, and punched the holes. Now I need to make the new pacing charts, and I will have to micro manage them every day all day long, to show them how easy is REALLY is, when they are making diligent, honest progress.

I did show them 2 of the surprises today. The first one was that my oldest is done with "reading" for the rest of the official school year. She got a Certificate of Completion for that. The second surprise was showing them how much of their books they will be done with at the end of this 4 week period. Both were motivation points for the girls, and my second born was happy to learn she only had a week of reading left... (kinda, she's further behind due to Mono and Migraines).

This is an ongoing lesson. I did not learn it over night, and I had noone to hold my hand and teach me good pacing and diligence. Maybe we will all master it together, one day at a time.

PostScript:
     The natural consequences of shirking work is compounded work under a deadline.

     The consequences for outright lying about doing the work and pretending to be busy doing it are not quite so simple.