Guess who turned out to be the most gullible? If you said me, then you guessed correctly. I mentioned in a previous post that the therapist suggested that I let my children choose not to earn credits and suffer the consequences of their choices. That is what I have done for the last few weeks. I have been having difficulty with getting my daughters to turn in their homework. I have posted notes strategically all over the house to remind them, and then I posted a credit sheet that allows them to earn money for turning in their homework as well as other work. I really could not understand why my 10-year-old daughter, who loves money, was not turning in her homework.

The children asked how they could still earn credit for turning in their schoolwork if I was at work on a homeschool day. I told them that they could call me on my cell phone before 9:30am and ask me if I could correct their homework. Even though I could not actually correct the work, it allowed me to know that they were thinking about it. The 10 year old called me twice last week. I told her that I appreciated her calling, but she really needed to give me her work when I got home so I could actually correct it.

Only she didn’t. I actually said to her, “If I didn’t know better, I would think that you are purposely only offering to turn in your homework when you know that I can’t correct it.” That is how I almost caught her last week. Maybe if I had been looking at her when I said it I would have noticed something. But, that is exactly what she was doing, she had no intention of turning in her work, because she hadn’t done any. She had only done her work on the computer that I see everyday because it is on my computer that I use to blog.

She is over one hundred pages behind in Language Arts, in history, and in math. In, fact she had only done two pages of math since the last time I corrected her work on November 9. I know I shouldn’t have been, but I was stunned. What am I a rookie?

Well, now she is doing all of her work sitting at the kitchen table under my watchful eye. Not only that, but I am setting the kitchen timer for each page of work. I check each page after she finishes it. I informed her that she would do homework every evening until bedtime until she is caught up. I threw in that I hoped she was caught up before Christmas break or she would have to do homework then as well.

She offered her usual reason for not doing something when I asked. She didn’t want to do it. “Didn’t you think that you would get caught,” I asked. “What did you think the consequences would be?” She thought she would get in big trouble. She was right. Tomorrow afternoon she is going to work with me so I can make sure she does her schoolwork.

Photo Credit Julia Fuller 2007