Well, that's better.

[azurelunatic]

He's perfectly capable of sitting down and doing something, including homework, without stopping, if he understands it and is thinking about doing it rather than about how hard it is and how he doesn't want to be doing it.

We had a horrendous time with tally marks until I finally put aside the homework sheet, and got him started on understanding the concept in the first place, which was the key. Once he got it, he was off like anything. And then he colored the animals and he cut out pennies and pasted them how they were supposed to be, and now he's measuring alligators with Lego blocks (we don't have any unifix cubes, sadly, which is what he was supposed to use at school).

Now he's having a delightful time.

I've been telling him that yes, this is what he should be doing when he's doing his schoolwork, and good job doing it now.

Comments

[boojum.livejournal.com]

He's perfectly capable of sitting down and doing something, including homework, without stopping, if he understands it and is thinking about doing it rather than about how hard it is and how he doesn't want to be doing it.

Unfortunately, he's not the only one who gets sidetracked by thinking about how much it (for whatever value of "it") sucks and how hard it is. *sigh* Barbie says self-motivation is hard.

[azurelunatic]

Barbie is a psychotic spoiled bitch.

You, on the other hand, are not Barbie.

[boojum.livejournal.com]

You say the oddest motivational things.

(Although, I suppose, I'm sitting here with assorted sore spots and dirt from helping friends clean their place and aggressive gardening -- Barbie doesn't mop or sit on rooftops yanking and cursing at vines or climb around steep rooftops or anything. And it actually feels like it would help to recast the self-motivation problem into "Barbie says self-motivation is hard. Do I really wanna be like Barbie?" Useful food for thought. Thank you!)

[azurelunatic]

We're oddly motivated people, what can I say?