charles is on a business trip for the next six days.

the week of bribery was begun.

match attax have been purchased and carefully stored in pockets and side drawers where i have quick access to them. i have told sebastian if we can get through today (sunday) with NO CRYING then he will be rewarded with a packet of match attax. i just can't deal with his hot easy tears today.

this promise of course, caused jasper to furrow his brow. "what about me?"
jasper needs work on his...initiative shall we say. "if i see you cleaning the playroom and obeying then i will give you match attax" promised crap mother. "and that means listening at the table..."

"...and no intentional burping" chimed in sela.
"and if he does a buhp he has to covuh his mouf" inserted carys quickly.

as for the girls, in preparation for this week i got them those silly "pet shop" toys that are sweeping the primary crowds. i suppose these pet shop toys are no sillier than the pet shop boys, but i will defend my musical tastes later. we west end girls must stick up for ourselves.

i am also learning that brothers stick up for others. the triplets have an "introduction" morning at kennedy on 27 may. and i heard sebastian say that he would play with the triplets at playtime so they would know where to play and would not be lonely. of course, that day there will be no playtime, but what a gorgeous offer from big brother. he just overwhelms me sometimes with his gorgeousness and thoughtfulness?

mr thoughtful has completed his homework for the week. he is having trouble grasping times tables. he knows 3,6,9,12,15,18, 21 but has real hassles remembering that three threes are nine. this means that mummy has hassles also. hassles she can do without if you must know. becauase as seb says, "i don't like school. i don't like work." and when i dare point out that he actually has no trouble learning, it's not like it is difficult for him, he points out, "i just dont want to."

i need wisdom on how to deal with this gorgeous complex child of mine. how sad is it that he dislikes school at such a young age? loves his teacher, his friends, but hates the academic portion, even though learning isn't difficult??

Comments

[tripleblessings]

Hi Tess, long time no comment.. What is a match attax?

Does Sebastian really dislike school and schoolwork, or is he just saying something he's heard or read about, to see how you'll react? Does he not want to do the work because he hates it, or worries he'll make mistakes, or just because it's inconvenient and he'd rather be playing? Maybe this is just a phase - if so don't worry too much, just reinforce that it's necessary to do some work now and then. If he's seriously unhappy, sorry I don't have any experience for that...

Our triplets have a collection of those Littlest Pet Shop animals, and I don't think they're so bad. Our son likes them just as much as our daughters do. (Personally I think they are ugly and annoying.) On the plus side they are cheap and collectable so kids can buy new ones with their allowance, give them as birthday gifts etc. They are easy to take along on trips - a large number of pets and accessories fit into one plastic freezer bag. They encourage a lot of pretend-play and cooperative play. Our kids discovered that they can fit in our old Fisher Price Little People school bus, airplane, farm, playhouse, and so on, so that led to many hours of happy play. We've enjoyed them from ages 5 to 7.

[Coral]

Does Seb have a really high IQ? He reminds me of Sean - he said it was all 'boring' and the problem was that as he had a high IQ, he caught on really fast, and the slower kids in the class frustrated him, so he used to switch off when he had 'done' learning. Thus he also missed the next learning opportunity in the lesson. So he had huge holes in his learning.

Just a thought.

[Dad aka GDad Blake]

On Sebbies behalf it can be argued that three 3's are three hundred and thirty-three.
Hang in the Seb.

You friend Cap'n Ook.

[JoeInVegas]

Oh, I hope you find some way to get him interested. He is to small to start not liking schoolwork.

[Lowa]

Please read "The Call to Brilliance" by Resa Steindel Brown. Every parent on the planet should read this book. Also note that two of my sons have tested on the gifted scale and if they attended school would be bored out of their skulls. Little boys are made to play and run and explore, not be made to sit and fill out worksheets for hours a day. My oldest son is in "grade ten" and has not done a math curriculum in 3 years. He HATES math (it IS his lowest score by far) and thinks he is bad at it but tested two years ahead even though he doesn't ever do it?? Every other thing he is at college level and beyond and has been since he was first tested at seven (un-beknownst to us, I might add. The testing, I mean. NO one asked to test him at the public school, they just took him away from the other kids and made him do all these things). People learn by living life. Sebastian is right! He just doesn't want to. And if he already doesn't like it...

That is all I can say about that right now. I don't want to be too opinionated, I just feel very strongly about delight directed learning and how kids will not be lacking anything and learn all they need to without sitting in classrooms all day:)

OH! One more thing! :)

I finally went to YK at the end of March for the first time in my life! What a lovely little town! How long did you live there and at what ages?? I am just curious. My, what a change, from YK, NWT to HK!?!?! YIKES!