Hard Transitions

You may be wondering how Will's first day at school went...and you may not be, but I'm going to tell you anyway!  It went great!  Well, for the most part it went great, aside from him thinking the day was just too darn long and a bus/grandma pick-up mix up on the second day (sorry, mom!)...but nonetheless we all survived and he's actually still excited about going - yay!  But I can also tell there are going to be some tough transitions and routines that will need to be established to really get this school year off to a good start...like homework.

Will had his first homework assignment tonight and it really wasn't a tough one.  Good thing because we promised him we could go fishing after dinner (mistake number one...ha!...rookie parents).  An easy assignment is just what we needed tonight so we could finish up before eating and not interfere with our after dinner plans.  He had to come up with some items for a "Me Bag."  Just some things he enjoys that he could share with his teacher and friends to help them learn a little more about him.  Easy, right?

Geesh, I should know by now that when I have everything planned out perfectly and to the minute for me and my five-year-old (and don't forget to throw in the Crazy Micah-Man) things absolutely won't go according to that plan...at all.  As soon as we got in the door it was, "Mom, can I watch TV?"  Me, without thinking, "Sure."  Five minutes later realizing what I'd done, "Uh, no, buddy...we have homework."

Now every time...every single time I've said this to him in the past the response has been an over enthusiastic, "Okay, mom!  What do we have to do?"  I didn't quite get that reaction this time.  Maybe it was the fact that he'd been at school all day and was in brain-overload or maybe that he had just turned on The Incredibles (an all-out fave in the Schmidt house) or maybe the stars were aligned just right to cause a meltdown.  I don't know, but the reaction I got was, "Nooooooooo!!!!!!" accompanied by hysteric crying.

Now I don't know if you're a planner, but I'm a planner, and as we've already discussed our tight schedule for the evening, you know this wasn't part of the plan.  Not in the slightest.  First reaction?  Get up here and do your homework!!!!!!  The right reaction?  Don't think so.  It just led to more hysterics and crying which usually pushes me closer to the edge.  Usually, but for some reason I actually stopped to think about this whole scenario that was playing out here (and again that which was totally not in accordance to the plan).  He's five.  He's never really had to do homework in his life.  Not on a regular basis and certainly not homework that there were consequences if he didn't do it.  He's never had to go somewhere where he's required to have an actively engaged brain for almost seven hours straight. He's probably tired.

Something in me decided to empathize with him, but then level with him.  "Buddy, we've got to do this homework.  If we want to do the things we planned to do, we have to do this first."  Did he sit down right away and do it?  Unfortunately no. But he did sit down and he did do it, but with quite a bit of coaxing and trying to get him actively engaged on my part.  I think I got my first little glimpse into what homeschooling him might be like, and honestly I'm still quite unsure I'm equipped to do that.  It took every bit of effort I had to try and keep him interested and (quite ridiculously) to try and keep myself from doing it for him.

Ugh, sometimes I'm such a perfectionist that it makes me sick...only when it comes to some things,  mind you.  Dusting my house? Well, that falls on the Stuff I Could Care Less About list...unless someone's coming over.  Know what I'm talkin' about?  But I digress....  Case in point:  Will wants to put something about bike riding in his bag because in the past few months since we've been at this house he's become somewhat of biking extraordinaire.  So I think, 'Hmmm...we don't have a little toy bike to put in there.  Why don't I make him a super-cute, super-perfect little bicycle with my handy-dandy Cricut and all the other kids at Kindergarten will be in awe of our homework completing skills.'  Or will they?  Okay, I didn't think this exactly, but I was going to do the Cricut thing.

Again for some odd reason, I stepped outside of myself and thought, 'Seriously, Martha. How does that help Will?'  Well, I could get everything set up and he could push the "cut" button.  Really, Martha?  Really?  This isn't about you.

"Hey Will, how 'bout we look through all our Hi Five mags to find a picture of a bicycle that you can cut out and put in your bag?"  He had so much fun searching the pages of those magazines to find the perfect picture to add to his bag and was then so excited to have the task of cutting the picture out.  He was concentrating so hard to cut ever-so-carefully to stay on that thin white line.  Result: super-captivated kindergartner and super-humbled momma who got a small break from narcissism and realized how cool it is to be an active part of my boy's learning experience.

I tried to get him to smile to tell everyone, "Hey, we're having fun here!"  Ha! His response?  "Mom, leave me alone." O-kaaay!

So we're all learning here.  Learning that it's best to get our homework out of the way first so we can go fishing.  Learning it's best not to do stuff like fishing on a school night when bedtime is still 8 o'clock.  Learning it's best to step aside and assist your child rahter than trying to be perfect for them (or through them) and have them miss out on a learning adventure.  (Still) learning that things almost never go exactly as planned...especially not with kids in the picture. Learning that if you keep writing insanely long posts on homework you'll lose half your readers (sorry, guys).  On that note...I'm out!  Catch you on the flip-side!