Tuesday–run errands and stuff
August 10, 2010 by Stephanie
221
So the update on the no swaddling with the Miracle Blanket thing is that the baby is sleeping pretty well at night but NOT napping. AT ALL. It’s pretty funny to watch her spring up and start banging the crib rails as soon as I put her down. I swear yesterday she took her binky and ran them up and down the sides like she was in prison. crazy kid.
I did get a bunch of work-work done yesterday and the kids were really well behaved considering I banned the TV. Today we’re going to run a bunch of errands and finalize the back to school stuff the school sent out.
and go to the post office.
I hate our post office. Are they all so slow? I see employees walking around back there, but there’s usually only one window open during the day, and the line moves so slow I feel like plucking out eyelashes just so SOMETHING is happening.
anyway. I got two great emails yesterday. Jenny suggested putting in “speed bumps” during the summertime to get the kids on track with their summer reading—stuff like no going to Six Flags until your summer reading is caught up, etc.
and Laura had a fantastic idea of doing a “dress rehearsal” to get back on track for the busy school day mornings. Get up, get dressed, make beds, eat breakfast, brush teeth, etc. all by a certain time. Brilliant!
Today:
PROM the dresser drawers for the very last time. Or until maybe right before the holidays? 
Yes, every post office I’ve been to recently is that slow. I thought I was going to witness a fight there one day this spring between a group of 40-ish business types who were trying to get tax stuff mailed and the one post office employee who was actually working.
Thanks for the shout-out. After I posted yesterday, I actually went into my calendar and wrote on the first day of summer, “Look up summer reading/assignments. Set up speed bumps.”
I mean no disrespect to Jenny, but I cringed a little when I read about using speed bumps as a negative reinforcer of summer reading – ie, not getting to do something fun until you do a certain amount of reading (therefore, the “unfun” thing). I know that every kid is different and that while some will happily read everything they get their hands on, others really don’t seem to enjoy reading for pleasure and it is tempting to take away other pleasures as a way of getting them to read. But I’ve seen this strategy (“You don’t get to have/do X unless you read” backfire and make kids who were merely uninterested in reading grow to actively resent it.
I worked in the children’s department of a public library for 9 years, and a big part of my job revolved around the library’s summer reading program. Our strategies included making reading fun/relevant by incorporating related activities; rewarding progress with small “prizes” as incentives while making it clear that reading is its own biggest reward; pairing kids with older buddies to encourage reading together; and acknowledging that all reading is good – and that even reading below your reading level is okay sometimes as long as you’re enjoying it!
Valid point. Every family absolutely needs to do whatever is the right thing for their own particular kid.
I procrastinated horribly on my summer reading, and my parents (LOVE THEM!) assumed I was being honest when I was in my room “summer reading,” but really I just hated the books I was assigned and was doing my own reading. If they talked to me about the books, paid attention to what was really going on, had me in the common area of the house, etc. I wouldn’t have been kicked out of Jr year AP English.
I was supposed to read these Merlin books—I don’t remember the series name, just that I hated hated hated them.
I totally agree about the post office. I wish ours had a drive through window. It’s very hard to manage an arm load of packages and a kid at the same time.
Fairytale, I agree with you in principle. I never use reading (or writing, or going to church) as punishment; however, when you have a 15yo trying to read almost 2000 pages and answer over 100 questions in 6 days (when he’s had ALL summer and been reminded constantly!) then it’s time to intervene. He made everyone miserable by staying up late trying to finish, being incredibly grouchy because he was so tired, and stressing me out about his very challenging course schedule this year.
Like it or not, some things have deadlines. School is one of those things. If they don’t get good grades, they can’t play sports (school rule AND my rule). If they don’t keep up their grades, in fact, they may be asked to leave their school.
Just like I sometimes have to say no to fun things because I have other stuff that MUST be done, sometimes they won’t get to do the fun things until their work is done. Right now their work is school.