She's done several weeks of pet sitting for neighbors, worked as a mother's helper for a few hours once a week, and works diligently on the list of things to do I create for her. (Which, by the way, takes several hours on Sunday to create.)
Today, when she said she was going to play outside in the 100+ degree heat I was thrown off guard. Filling her own time playing outside with neighbor friends/classmates is the best way to kill several hours of the long summer days! And she gets tired and sleeps well too. But there sits the list of things I have for her to do for me and to pass time. It's a place where I have to wait it out to see if she can juggle the things she needs to do versus the things she can rollover to tomorrow. I know she's not aware of the time of day, so I'll have to tell her when it's time to begin cooking dinner. She is an excellent cook and enjoys it, but has my dirty dish syndrome.
One of the things I resourced for her to do is math work, and I'm amazed how much slips by this girl in class.even thought she's attaining above average grades in math. I know it's part of the use it or lose it that occurs in the summer. I'm finding out which math principles she "learned" but has forgotten. Like adding fractions.
She is also doing Listening Therapy with our friend, Angie Lindinger. And I'm amazed at how listening to music for 30 minutes while reading or doing another activity besides screen time, a day can improve her listening skills and song word memory. Currently, Angie has her working on improving her cursive, fine motor skills, with her listening therapy. Angie@educateaustin.net.
Since she has gotten a new ipod touch game, she has been having trouble managing her screen time. She has has unlimited screen time and likes to be alone in her room. Not only does this interfere with her list of activities to keep her brain sharp and help me around the house, it turns her attitude into the entitled one. So, a couple of days ago, I started limiting her screen time to 2 hours per day. She blew thru that in one sitting of Mine Craft! So, this morning it occurred to me that I can have her earn one more hour a day by doing her list of items. We started this today and we'll see how it works, but for now I'm feeling quite empowered. I broke it into a set of 3 activities. She'll earn 30 minutes for making dinner, 10 minutes for required summer reading with her headset on for 30 minutes, and 20 minutes for correctly finishing today's math sheet.
Then she wants to go out and play. Ugh!
