One Semester Down

Well me have made it through our first half school year as a divorced, homeschooling family. Toward the end, the kids really seem to be feeling burnt out with school work, especially Melanie, my oldest. She really has accomplished a lot over the past four months, so her feelings are more than forgivable. This last week was actually quite a struggle between the two of us. She plain didn't want to do any more homework. This isn't exactly new, of course. She is generally less than thrilled with math, for example, but she was clearly even more done than usual by the time Christmas break finally came around.

We have found various ways of alleviating this homework fatigue. The floating holiday is one example. Once a month, and for absolutely any reason or no reason, the kids can take a random day off from school-work. They don't need to provide an explanation, and it makes no difference what day of the month it is.

Other times, their mother or I may give them the day off for any number of reasons. One problem with this is I'm often not sure when to give these extra days reprieve. Having had an incredibly difficult year, Melanie is sometimes a depressed teenager. She has every right to be. On days like this, it seems easier on all involved, to not require her to complete her homework. The problem arises when this becomes a weekly occurrence - or a twice-weekly occurrence... It has become a matter of teaching her to persevere with the things she needs to do, even when she doesn't feel like it.

Lack of communication between my ex-wife and myself can cause further problems with these random days off. There are times when Katie goes a week, or nearly so, without doing any homework at her mother's house. This means I either move her homework to the following week, or require her to do her homework while she is with me. Katie resents this quite a bit. While she is busy with her mom, she does not always have the self-control or foresight to stop what she is doing and get working on her homework. On the other hand, she is terribly upset when she comes back to my place and realizes she has to work on her homework in the evening or weekend. The reality is that this is not her responsibility. It should be up to her mother and I to encourage her to compete her work at appropriate times.

Anyway, I'm just rambling now. Any ideas out there?