A Hard Lesson Learned...

Today was a hard day for my oldest! (OK- and myself, too)

For whatever number of reasons- he was tired, frustrated, etc.- Stickman, as he will be known here, was not giving his lesson any effort! It became a show down! I don't know any mom's that enjoy do the battle of the wills and I am no exception. It was not a pretty site- or sound- in my home this morning!

After a crying fit (he's just 8) and timeout time in his room we were finally able to continue with a bit of a healed spirit. This set us back almost an hour, however, and we already had plans for the rest of the day. Following Charlotte Mason's theories, I always try to give the boys the afternoon outdoors, but after much consideration I decided the most important thing today was to not have a repeat of today in the future...so while I forgave my son his immature ways...I did require him to cut his afternoon short and come inside on a beautiful day to give mom an hour of his time since he had wasted mine.

I believe this made a grand impact on him, especially since he had to give up digging up rocks with his buddy and his baby brothers were able to still play with neighbor friends. To make it a bit more impactful, I didn't give him my one on one time like we would normally have for his lessons. I just didn't feel that was fair to my younger boys who wanted their mom to play and push them on the swings. He ended up getting a lot done in that hour...thank you notes, bible study, vocabulary workbook...and even better he knows that our time is our responsibility and should not be wasted!