Motivated

The four-day work/school week following Labor Day was long even though it was a ‘short’ week. Olivia had loads of homework each day, including the day she had to serve lunch detention for not doing her classwork in, you know, class. Because of all this homework, we did not get to go to my mom’s house on Tuesday or Wednesday. I told her, though, after we finished just under an hour of homework on Wednesday that if she worked really hard at school the next day and then came home and did the required spelling work (writing her spelling words four times each…yikes!) that we’d go to Gram’s for a little while. I even suggested to Olivia and her dad that perhaps they’d like to get a head start on her spelling homework before I got home on Thursday. Did I mention that she had to write each word four times? Yes? Well, did I also mention that there were 21 words on that list? Have I pounded it into everyone that Olivia struggles with her handwriting? Excellent. We’re all on the same page. Any bets on whether or not she’d started the spelling work before I got home? How about if I tell you that I was fifteen minutes later than usual because I had to go to the pharmacy after work and pick up a refill of her medicine? Yeah, you’re right, of course she didn’t start the spelling before I got home. Why would she? And, the better question is why would her dad bother himself to encourage her to get started? Okay. I will reel in my bitterness over being the sole homework helper in our house. It’s how we’re dividing the labor these days, get over it, right? Ahem. So we sat down and I told her that if it took her too long to write all 84 words we wouldn’t be able to go to Gram’s because she, Olivia, not Gram, needed to bathe that evening. Do you think that girl sat there and wrote her words without stopping for a straight twenty minutes? Well, she didn’t. But! She didn’t erase all that many and she didn’t ask for chocolate after the second word and she didn’t need constant redirection. Yes, she paused a few times to shake out her cramping hand and she did get up to get a drink of water about halfway through. But she got them done with minimal bitching from me and we were able to go spend about forty-five minutes at Liv’s Gram’s house and everyone was refueled by the visit. We may have found a source of motivation for this girl…maybe. I mean, it worked once but that doesn’t mean it will work ever again. But don’t think I won’t try it again very soon. Will report back on the success or lack of success in any future attempts at bribing her with a visit to Gram’s.