Yesterday I was talking about running, my weight struggles and all that. Then, tonight for dinner, this is what I had…
Yes, I see the irony. Every little round pasta ‘o’ of irony. I forget about the irony when I’m eating the meatballs, but only then.
You see, my girl had an optional reading assignment over the last few weeks… read 20 books above and beyond the books assigned as homework and earn a reward. The list has to be turned in tomorrow morning. Being that December is our busiest month around here, I did not push the issue. She reads. She reads a lot. It’s not always books and it’s not always in one sitting. Unless she was interested in it, I wasn’t keeping track of, nor was I forcing her to read 20 books. She had no interest, so I put it aside.
Fast forward to Monday. Who wants to guess what the girl came home all in a tizzy about on Monday? Oh yes. The list. The magical ’20 books for a reward’ list. What the what?
We’ve spent the last 3 days, before and after school, reading. My daughter doesn’t have the best attention span, and reading multiple books in one sitting isn’t very much fun for either of us. Dare I say, this week has been a challenge. As of catching the bus this morning, we had completed 9 of 20 books. It wasn’t looking good.
Tonight was out last opportunity to finish the list. Almost two hours, 20+ reminders to focus on what we were doing and she finally finished number 20. I’d like to say she also learned a lesson about procrastination, but I doubt it.
I could have forced her to face the consequences of making the decision not to start reading earlier. But, I also could have made her work on the list earlier myself, whether she wanted to or not. I think we’ll call this one a case of shared fault. She sacrificed her free time all week, and sacrificed some of mine.
Tonight, I ate dinner out of a can, and that’s ok. It’s ok because it was the product of my little girl reading 20 books in 4 days. 20 books in 4 days! If my six year old can read 20 books in 4 days, I can live with dinner out of a can tonight.
%20at%20MamaMommyMom.com)
Some nights you have to do what you have to do!!
I hate when there is some magic number of books like that to read. Some books are longer and some shorter…the number isn’t that important if you ask me. (and I always want reading to be fun and not stressy–but the same thing happens to us! We had a list to fill out before going back from Christmas break and it was BRUTAL although my daughter had been reading all break)
Some children start young in learning about the lovely allure of procrastination! It will be a skill she will be honing for the rest of her life!
But congratulations. Keep us notified on what happens the next time this assignment comes around! (But 20 in 4 days is indeed impressive- especially for a 6 year old!)