Homework

We have entered the universe of homework.

I am slowly but surely learning how to help navigate these waters.

Husband has been very helpful, I am trying to learn from his approach. My natural tendency is to set the homework in front of my child and get frustrated when she dithers. Which she does. Sometimes she dithers because she's not in the mood, sometimes she is genuinely frustrated by what's being asked of her, afraid she won't be able to do it just right.

And Maeve has never really been a perfectionist. But I think she has the problem of having a picture in her mind of how her handwritten letters and numbers should look, and they don't measure up.

Of course, this homework is just practice. But it's hard to convince her sometimes that all the practice of homework will improve her handwriting, when she wants it to just be improved, already!

So, I'm working on just watching the child work, helping when she asks, and not putting on the pressure. Who cares if it takes an hour? It's her time, and she can take it if she wants to.

We're also working on her reading aloud. Which is possibly some form of parent-torture. Pointing at each letter, sounding out each word, would not be so bad if she didn't spend half the time either reciting the book from memory or just guessing wildly. I know these are normal developmental things on the road to reading, but it takes the patience of a saint to get through one whole children's book with the child. So I am working on that patience, too.

Whew.

The hard work is paying off!