Back to School

Kaleb hit the books running on Wednesday.  His long summer has come to an end.  He’s actually been off school for six months, so it’s been a big adjustment to get him back in the swing of things. 

Age wise, he would be starting 7^th grade, (but I started him a  year early, so it’s technically 8^th grade) so this would be a big year for adjustments anyway – saying goodbye to the simplicity of the elementary years.  He’s always telling me he would much rather have positive re-enforcements, rather than negative ones, so I devised a scheme that seems to be working very well to help with the adjustment.  I pay him to perform.  Unfortunately, money talks. 

I have learned through various trials and errors, that my son is best motivated through having some cash to call his own.  We have a rule in our house though, that every dollar he gets, he has to divide it up into fours, with one part going to God, one part going into savings for his first car or college, one part getting invested for his retirement and the other fourth he can spend.  This creates a need for some serious income if he wants to buy something that’s more than a few bucks.

I’ve read a lot about teaching kids how to handle money and the one philosophy I tend to agree with is to NOT pay them to do chores, but to pay them for doing well in school, since that’s most like the “real world” when they become adults.  So, I’ll be paying him for his grades, now that he is taking classes where he gets a transcript.

We signed Kaleb up for Hillcreek Christian Academy this year, just to see how it goes.  It’s a twice a week school for homeschool kids and he’s loaded down with homework for the rest of the week.  He begged to take Physics, and I also made him take English. Between those two classes and the Algebra class he’s taking on-line with Johns Hopkins University, his piano lessons, Speech club, gymnastics, Confirmation and Scouts, he’s got a full load.  And I’m not just paying him for his grades, I’m paying him if I don’t have to tell him to do a thing.

This past year I got sick and tired of reminding the boy to brush his teeth, make his bed, drink a glass of water, exercise, do his school work, take the garbage out and on it goes.  He’s usually lost in his own imaginative world, or reading a book and tuning us out at every minute.  This is the year that will change, since I’m putting money where my mouth used to be.  I made a list of all the things he has to do everyday, and if he can do them without any prompting from me, he gets cash.  I can see from how it’s gone so far, this is exactly the kind of motivation he’s been waiting for, and it also has the potential to break the bank.  I didn’t think he’d be so successful.

This week, Kaleb’s been waking up every morning at 6:30, doing all his chores and even starting school an hour before he’s scheduled to start.  Yesterday he worked “after hours” in order to complete a chapter in Algebra.  There are no messes he’s left behind in the house (except school work) and his bed is made better than I could make it.  He’s been kind and respectful and has been as near perfect as a kid can be.  Who knew.  He’s also done an extraordinary amount of school work and not complained a bit.

He’s not been without tears, however, as he was sorely disappointed in how boring his Physics textbook is, and he felt the songs his piano teacher gave him this week were just too hard.  I had to explain that his brain is going “where no man has gone before” so he just needs to push on through and pray for wisdom.  I’ve had to give many pep talks this week, mostly because he’s still adjusting back into the academic world and getting over a little jetlag.  But both Kory and I have been exceedingly impressed with the effort he’s making so far and we only pray his enthusiasm lasts the whole year.

We attended a school assembly for Kaleb’s new school on Wednesday, and had a parent-teacher conference on Thursday.  That school is a serious college prep school and the good thing about Kaleb going this year is if he can’t cut it, he’s still young and the classes won’t show up on his transcript and he can take them again later, but if he’s able to pass both the high school classes he’s taking, they will give him credit and it will go on his transcript so he won’t have to take them again.  Sweet.

  

We’ve been working in the yard a little this week.  Today Kory was sitting in the top of our plum tree, trimming off some shoots, when the whole tree just suddenly fell over.  He said he just rode it on down and never fell out of the tree.  It broke right at the base of the trunk (see photo of Kaleb near it).  Incredible.  We’re sad to be down one plum tree but thankful Kory didn’t get hurt. 

Kory took Kaleb fishing again last night, but again, they caught nothing while everyone else around them seemed to be snatching them up.  Tonight, we picked up one of Kaleb’s second cousins (age 27) from Norway and her fiancé (from England) at the bus depot and they will be staying with us for some days.  They are on a three-month tour of North America so it will be nice to have them hanging out with us for a while. 

We’ve certainly been enjoying these glorious warm days of summer, beautiful sunrises and dinners out on the deck at night (mostly because our dining room table is now converted to a school desk and is covered with papers, books and laptops). Oh, it's so good to be home.