[email protected]

As I've posted before, my 14 year old son periodically craves a bit of
structure. In the past, that's involved things like scheduling structured times on
my calendar where he does some more "academic" stuff. Today was something new.

He has a lot of work to do for his course that he's finishing up. He had a
lot of reading to do for class tonight, and he also has a pretty demanding
take-home final he's working on, due next Thursday. He got up late, and his dad
wanted to have a rough idea if Julian was going to have time to hang out with him
today.

He got all flustered, and finally figured out that he probably didn't. Then
he started telling me he had all this stuff to do, and didn't know how to
schedule it all. Trying to lighten the mood, I, laughing, said, "Want me to
schedule your day, minute by minute?" He glowed and said, "That would be great!" At
first I thought he was kidding, but, no...

So I wrote down a schedule:
12-12:30 Brush teeth, eat some something, etc.
12:30-1:30 Read Appleman (one of the assignments)
1:30-1:45 Have snack and play one game of Snood
Etc., etc.....

And the kid DID it!!!! He was thrilled!!!! Again jokingly, I said, "We could
schedule ALL your days like that." He says, "Well, maybe not ALL of them."

I asked if he knew I was kidding, and yes, he did.

Well, I love him dearly, and he may be a Virgo, but his Mama is a free-spirit
Aquarius, and she is NOT scheduling his days minute-by-minute, except maybe
sometimes as a Very Special Treat. LOL

Weird kid.

Kathryn

P.S. To clarify: Julian rarely REALLY wants his days scheduled like this,
although he does enjoy some structured time.


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

gehrkes

Katheryn,
My Virgo is going back to school. Her unschooling life is more than
she can handle. I think she goes back more self confident and ready
to question.. But for crying out loud her Gemini mother does not
know how to always handle a kids who wants that much structure
either. Her decision to back to PS was tough for me, but my feeling
is I just need to support what she needs.
However your post made me laugh and laugh.. Megan want me to make
her run.. Not gonna happen.. I am happy to suggest if she would
like, but she wants me to make her..Freedom is not her favorite
thing.
Kathleen









--- In [email protected], KathrynJB@a... wrote:
> As I've posted before, my 14 year old son periodically craves a
bit of
> structure. In the past, that's involved things like scheduling
structured times on
> my calendar where he does some more "academic" stuff. Today was
something new.
>
> He has a lot of work to do for his course that he's finishing up.
He had a
> lot of reading to do for class tonight, and he also has a pretty
demanding
> take-home final he's working on, due next Thursday. He got up
late, and his dad
> wanted to have a rough idea if Julian was going to have time to
hang out with him
> today.
>
> He got all flustered, and finally figured out that he probably
didn't. Then
> he started telling me he had all this stuff to do, and didn't know
how to
> schedule it all. Trying to lighten the mood, I, laughing,
said, "Want me to
> schedule your day, minute by minute?" He glowed and said, "That
would be great!" At
> first I thought he was kidding, but, no...
>
> So I wrote down a schedule:
> 12-12:30 Brush teeth, eat some something, etc.
> 12:30-1:30 Read Appleman (one of the assignments)
> 1:30-1:45 Have snack and play one game of Snood
> Etc., etc.....
>
> And the kid DID it!!!! He was thrilled!!!! Again jokingly, I
said, "We could
> schedule ALL your days like that." He says, "Well, maybe not ALL
of them."
>
> I asked if he knew I was kidding, and yes, he did.
>
> Well, I love him dearly, and he may be a Virgo, but his Mama is a
free-spirit
> Aquarius, and she is NOT scheduling his days minute-by-minute,
except maybe
> sometimes as a Very Special Treat. LOL
>
> Weird kid.
>
> Kathryn
>
> P.S. To clarify: Julian rarely REALLY wants his days scheduled
like this,
> although he does enjoy some structured time.
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Fetteroll

on 1/15/04 5:58 PM, KathrynJB@... at KathrynJB@... wrote:

> To clarify: Julian rarely REALLY wants his days scheduled like this,
> although he does enjoy some structured time.

Maybe it's like restricting kids TV and food. He craves more structure than
is naturally happening so when you gave him a chance to pig out he did :-)

Could be you've given him the impetus to do it on his own!

Joyce