Getting use to it...
Oct 10, 2006

Yeah, okay so things haven't quite worked out like I thought they would *yet* It took awhile to get use to, I'm still getting use to it actually. I made the mistake of thinking I had five days in a row. That was before I remembered that I only get one day by myself for three hours, then two days with just Delos and I for three hours and then two days by myself for three hours. Doesn't exactly make it easy to keep a routine. At first, we tried an every other thing, since neither of us are morning people. Tuesday, I would get up with him and Delos would get him from the bus and do his homework with him. Wednesday, Delos would get up with him and I would get him from his bus and help him do his homework. Tried this for two weeks when I realized it just plain wasn't working for me and it was not what I'd wanted when I first realized I was going to have three quiet hours at home. Last week I discussed it with Delos and for the sake of actually having a routine to fit writing in like I'd originally wanted, he no longer had to get up on either day. If I was going to get myself into the habit of waking up early and writing everyday, I needed to actually have a routine and 1 day on two days off was two days on is definitely not going to get me into any habits.

I am still hoping, after the novelty of having three hours without Michael wears off, that Delos and I can start spending some of those hours doing something we normally couldn't (No! Not just that you dirty minded peoples!), instead of him sleeping in. Then again, I can't blame him for sleeping in either, having to work overtime recently and he's no more a morning person than I am.

I have also made a promise to Michael, to get a better routine for him, and incentive to be good in school. It's not that he's bad, his teacher already explained it all to all the parents as a whole. If they're good all day and follow all the rules, listen to the adults (teacher and her helpers), stay quiet when they're supposed to, and stay seated when they're supposed to (as opposed to running off to the other side of the room to do their own thing when they're bored), etc. their name stays on the green square all day. If they remain in the green square, they get a smiley face stamp on their hand. If they break one of the behavior rules they are moved to the yellow triangle and then the red rectangle. If they move to either of those during the course of the day, they get no smiley face stamp.

I thought about it for awhile last week because Michael comes home without the smiley face more often than not. Apparently, he has a problem staying quiet when he's supposed to. His teacher hasn't sent a note home about it, but Michael tells me talking was the reason he got on the yellow triangle whenever I ask. Once he told me he fell asleep and one other time he said he tried to take someone's apple at snack time because he didn't like his apple ^^". Anyhow, I thought about what he likes most that we could manage on a daily basis as a reward for coming home with a smiley face. So, I spoke with him about it, so I knew he understood. If he comes home with a smiley face stamp he can either play video games on the computer with Delos or myself (only on yucky days) or if it's nice outside we can play outside when he gets home (he gets a recess at school outside on a playground, so it's not as if he never goes outside). He seemed motivated to get the smiley face stamp after we discussed this.

Anyhow, the routine should start getting more into what I had originally wanted to accomplish when he started school, especially now that we've gotten through the two extra long weekends back to back (he had last monday and this monday off). Hopefully I can start getting some things accomplished!