T has decided that maybe being pleasant and cooperative will make this whole homeschooling thing a lot more fun for everyone.  His attitude adjustment has been spectacular.  At the beginning of last week we started back at school, he immediately started back with fighting me about doing his work.  Na and I sat him down and told him that 1. His work must be completed by noon (lunch time) or he would lose TV for the day and still have to complete the work and 2. He had until the end of this month to show significant improvement in his attitude toward school or he would be going back to public school.  I had just really had it with fighting him on something that I’m doing because *he* asked me to.  I also made him a folder with his self-directed assignments for the week (grammar, handwriting, and math), worksheets clipped together with a “to-do” sheet for each day.

He really is doing so much better!  I’m trying to be realistic and remeber that it’s because the folder and being responsible for his own work are new and things always work well with him when they’re new.  I think that’s one of the most frustrating things is that just when I get used to something working, he gets bored with it and it stops working.  I can’t decide whether I should just enjoy this while it lasts or brace myself for when it stops working and be ready to move on instead of fighting him.

It’s especially noticable with math.  Before we went on break he fought me daily about math, this is the child who was teaching himself math concepts, yet was screaming that basic addition was too hard.  So now I tell him the text book pages he’s supposed to look through and the workbook pages he needs to practice and he just does it.  If he’s frustrated at not understanding, he’s frustrated with the book and he will pleasantly ask me to explain something to him and then calmly listen to my explination.  For now, I guess I should take any pleasantness I can get, lol.