Jonny hard at work on a research paper.
He has been working hard on it with Auntie every day. Tomorrow, they were going to write a closing for it but Jonny decided he wanted to do it today instead, on his own free time.
Because of course he did.
He’s also informed me he has set a goal for himself to read a chapter book a week. I think he has finished two over the break so far. He’s well on his way. This kid…
How do I motivate him?
Aside from the fact that he genuinely WANTS to do a good job academically, the one constant motivator is Screen time.
I don’t even limit his screen time.
He earns movie dates with Auntie for every chapter book he finishes.
Some days he will play on his tablet most the day. And I’m fine with that.
The one rule I have is that he must have his homework done first (that’s reading for 20min, writing a paragraph about what he read, and doing a page of math.) it usually takes him about an hour. But if he “cheats” and plays with his tablet when he’s not supposed to, he loses the privilege for a week. And it’s happened.
He once lost tablet privileges for the entire summer.
But Man…Jonny has come so far academically.
Getting him to make ANY academic progress was difficult when he was younger. He would get so frustrated.
Two years ago we had to transfer schools because they “couldn’t support Jonnys academic needs.” They advised us to opt him out of standardized testing and have him just take a “zero” instead of putting him through the stress of it all.
I think I wrote a post about it a while back…
Like, the vice principal literally met me at the curb one day and told me that when Jonny was in 3rd grade. We transferred the next year.
Last month when he took his 5th grade tests, he told me he had the BEST iReady scores in the class. He got a special prize from his teacher and everything.
He’s won a student of the month award like 3 out of the last six months!
You can’t hold this kid down. He has been so motivated to continue to learn over the break.
A little “virus” going around ain’t gonna stand in his way.
We’re so proud of you, Jonny!