Our most current battle is the battle of the books. I realize as I say it that it could be soooo much worse. We could be battling drugs, friends, health issues....but we are battling books.
Tiffany LOVES to read. I don't mean like the average person likes a good book. Books transform her to another place. She blocks everything out and is not even in the room when she is reading. Two weeks ago we went on the library's web site and reserved or got in the request line for every Beehive book. (These are the Utah award books. There are 12 non-fiction titles every year. She has read all 12 for the past 3 years.) Last week we came home with 4 books (about 250 pages each), she checked out a book from her school library and she began reading one of the books Jocelyn told her was one of her favorites.
Which brings us to the place we are now. Each day while walking home from the bus stop she reads a book. If I don't catch her before she disappears down the hall to her room, she will go there to read and not come out until my shadow covers the page in the book she is reading.
At our house when you come home from school there is a 30 minute grace period where you can read, surf the internet, get a snack, watch TV, take a nap or whatever you want. Then comes homework time, followed by straighten your room and bathroom. When these things are complete you can do whatever you want. Of course, for Tiffany, that is reading.
Unfortunately, she is having a little trouble coming out of the 30 minute grace period, and moving on. I am trying to decide if it is wrong of me to take her book away. Really one of the worst punishments is to take her book away. I did it 3 times last week. I feel like the worst mom. It is like saying "That's it! No more vegetables, or sleep for you."
We laugh about it when I do it. In fact she told our new Chinese intern Way Yen (phonetically spelled) that I take away all her books and make her work.(...yeah I am making a good impression for all Americans, thanks for noticing.)
I think we fixed the staying up until midnight, hiding under the covers with a flash light last week when she missed her bus and was tired and emotional all day. When she walked through the door from school, she looked like I do at the end of the marathon. She said "I need to stop reading after 10pm and go to sleep."
Isn't it great when your kids realize that it is not about controlling them, it is about helping them do the things they want to do. :)
5 comments:
That is SO funny! \I feel her pain, and I'm pretty sure she comes by it genetically. Remember when dad used to call mom's reading her"dirty habit" because it distracted her so much?
I really get this. Tiff and are soul mates. When I was her age I would rather read than eat. I passed out several times because of my "dirty habit". Now I want the beehive list.
Okay we will get you a Beehive book list. It is fun to have different kids with different strengths.
It's only funny cause I know just what you are talking about! Only I have 2 kids that are EXACTLY the same way. I'm not even kidding when I say that one of my readers reads by the light from the alarm clock until her sisters tattle on her.
It's been really helpful for the kids to have their watches with timers/alarms on them. Then, when they are still conscious of real-life, we tell them how long they have to read....they set the timers on their watches, and it pulls them out of the book and into real life again at the appropriate time. This works unless they hear the timer, decide that they are just going to "finish the page" and then they get sucked back in.
It's definitely a good problem to have. However, I've been known to take away a book or two, or even reading privileges at one point or another when they interfere with being responsible.
I like the idea of getting a watch and setting the stopwatch time allowed! I am also glad to hear I am not the first person with this problem. :)
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