Great ideas Passy,
My mom was terrific with 'well, just start, and in 10 minutes we'll see how it's going' with me, and I was so impressed with how often that was all it took.
When DS was in 4th grade, he usually tackled his homework worksheet right away and without much prodding. I called it the 'close your eyes and think of England' approach. But one day he came home in tears that he had 2 worksheets and it was so HARD and he had too much work and he would never be able to do it.....
I set up the timer and said: "Ok, do 10 minutes and we'll see" and then he finished in less than 90 seconds. I know because the time was running. That's is part of what prompted me to change his school for the following year. It really looked to me that the less he streched himself then the less he would be able to strech himself in the future. I had had such a hard time making the jump from 'open my ears and let the learning float in or give up' in High School, to actually working at learning in College that I didn't want the same thing to happen to my DS. Especially since I couldn't have gotten through that transition without plenty of peer support, which I got by playing the damsel in distress. I was pretty sure that that particular road wasn't going to be availible to my proud DS.
Love and More Love,
Grinity
