Post by Tatyana L on Nov 20, 2018 2:55:41 GMT 9
Weekend report - smoke! We have wildfires and because of it the air is too dangerous to be outside. The poor kids have been cooped up at home for 4 days now. It has had its positive and negatives. On the positive side I had a lot of face to face interaction with them because every extracurricular activity got cancelled due to air quality. The negative is that I have been outside and my throat is now too sore to be able to read more than one chapter to them. Although my older one jumped in and read half a chapter by herself after I said I can’t read anymore.
Older Child: She does keep her Russian clean but has somewhat lost her motivation to read and write, earlier than predicted. She wanted to read to me for a half hour for 2 red stones yesterday. She even opened the book twice, but each time put it down immediately. She did start and read for a minute while we clipped the dog’s claws. The dog snapped in pain and my husband said something to the effect that aggression is a sure sign that her life is coming to an end (she’s super old, and we’ve been privately debating for weeks whether she is now in too much pain and should be put down). Despite having no real relationship with the dog, the child burst in tears and kept crying for quite a while. Understandable, but it did destroy all reading attempts that evening.
The next day the little one did truly well on her speaking. She used some Russian phrases that I haven’t heard out of her for a long time. Several times during the day she asked what various words were in Russian. So on my “best effort” scale, she definitely deserved the blue speaking stone. That’s where it gets frustrating. The same scene played out as the previous day. She plain refused to take her stone at the end of the day because in her opinion she didn’t earn it. She still spoke too much English. She went to bed all in tears despite having a fantastic speaking day. I’m not sure what to do about that. What was supposed to be a positive reinforcement doesn’t seem to be affecting her in a positive way. I don’t want her to cry herself to sleep every day.
A frustrating weekend all around.
Older Child: She does keep her Russian clean but has somewhat lost her motivation to read and write, earlier than predicted. She wanted to read to me for a half hour for 2 red stones yesterday. She even opened the book twice, but each time put it down immediately. She did start and read for a minute while we clipped the dog’s claws. The dog snapped in pain and my husband said something to the effect that aggression is a sure sign that her life is coming to an end (she’s super old, and we’ve been privately debating for weeks whether she is now in too much pain and should be put down). Despite having no real relationship with the dog, the child burst in tears and kept crying for quite a while. Understandable, but it did destroy all reading attempts that evening.
Younger child: I don’t know what to do about her. Saturday I gave her a blue speaking stone for her jar. I debated about it, because she didn’t do too well that day. I asked her if she thought she tried her best. She looked at the stone for a while and said that no, she hasn’t. I said that she should try harder the next day, and it’s up to her if she wants to put the stone in her jar. I love my baby girl, and what followed makes me both proud and sad. You could see the furious activity in her head. At the end she started crying and gave back the stone saying that she didn’t deserve it. That’s integrity right there. After they went to bed, apparently the older child helped her write her first essay. “My name is Mila. I am 6 years old. I love chocolates. I love mama." The older child did it so the little one could get a red writing stone instead of the blue speaking one, so they would still have equal quantity.
A frustrating weekend all around.