MOM SOS-- A Great Idea from the Mind of My Husband

Yesterday was one of those days where the kids were a bit whiny, and I was a bit irritated.  My dear husband asked me what was on the day's homeschooling agenda, then sent me on my way for a Mom's Afternoon Off.

I had a great time.   Went to the library, did a bit of shopping, went to the old house that hasn't sold and took a long bath.

While I was out my husband did the homeschool stuff, part of which was reading out loud.  My older son has some reading issues that make him not like to read.  While his reading skills are a work in progress, he IS progressing.  It still is hard to get him to sit down and read, especially when his little brother is a better reader.  So when we have read out loud time, he gets frustrated and wants to negotiate that  pages get read by his parents.  This can turn into a struggle, for "if you give an inch, he'll want a mile" and he NEEDS to practice.

So yesterday during reading time, my older son, Andy, picked Oh, the Places You'll Go! to read out loud.  He has read this book several times, but it is still a challenge for him.  But then Dr Suess can be a challenge to some adults.  My husband told Andy at the start that he (my husband) would read 5 pages of the book, and that was all.  It was up to Andy to decide what 5 pages it would be.  Apparently this worked out quite well, and there was no complaining that Andy had to finish the rest of the book once the 5 pages were through.

When I got home, my husband told me of his method for reading with Andy.  I thought this was a wonderful idea, and that it could be spread out to other parts of homeschool that the boys either have problems with or just don't like.  So before this morning's homeschool, I made up 10 "parent help" tickets.  I knew there was going to be a syllable worksheet (Oak Meadow said to talk about syllables, I printed a few non-Oak Meadow worksheets to help us) and that worksheets are not his thing.  When I presented the work to him this morning, I also presented him with 4 Parent Help tickets to help with the 20 problems.  He loved this idea, turning the tickets into MOM SOS tickets.  He didn't need the help (he ended up using 3 of them in the last 4 problems), but I could tell that giving him the option of help from the outset made him feel better.