How important is it to teach neat-ness?
Depends on how important pride in one's work is to you? For me , it is very important. If something is not done right, why do it?
So, You are happy you made him write neatly?
Yes we can now read what he is writing and he has found he can fit more ideas on paper
Was it worth it?The grounding and the fighting?
Yes, for myself and his teacher .. it is one conflict that has been removed from obstructing time that can now be spent teaching
For me, he understands there are expectations, this would be no different than being fired if he was not putting forth the effort to the task assigned to him.
I do not do this to be mean but I do do this to nip bad habits and improper behavior in the bud before it can really snowball into something much larger.
There is always positive reinforcement when expectations are met or exceeded so its not all downhill for my DS
