Perspective

Last night was another struggle to get Simone to just do 1/5th of her homework.  I brought down the discipline and declared she could no longer have TV before finishing homework. 

I talked to Michael about it this morning and he gave me perspective on her entire education. 

"You want to keep learning fun because the moment it's a struggle, she's not going to want to learn.  I'd rather she learn to read later on instead of hate reading it because we forced it on her now." 

I told him that reading wasn't the problem - writing is.  And really, the problem is with the school system forcing her to write in Kindergarten.  Children are prepared to read earlier than they are capable of the fine motor skills needed to write letters.  So I'm going to relax on Simone and have her do maybe 1/7th of the homework and then do other fun learning things.  

So what if she doesn't make the honor roll in Kindergarten, right?  The Asian parent in me is struggling to come out and engulf all the homeschooling philosophies I've come to agree with.  Simone just got a progress report and I thought she was doing well with her "S" for satisfactory designation on 90% of her assessments.  Well, after reading the school newsletter I found out there is an "E" mark for excellent.  This means that Simone is average with all her S's, which is so not true!

Again Michael calmed me down with his great perspective ....

"Those report cards don't matter.  I almost failed according to those report cards and we all know I'm a genius!" 

It sounds arrogant, but he really is incredibly intelligent.  Simone's S's and N's are not going to let me get Tiger Mom on her.  I've got to keep learning fun!