Not All Fun and Games

but we got through the morning.

My hard lined approach to Missy's trial backfired on me this morning. She tried, she fussed, she used every tactic known to mankind to let me know she could not go and did I believe her?

Well, of course not.

I did not because I'm stubborn like that, and because she's used it all on me before when she was being dishonest. I soon found myself backed up against a wall and had to concede.

YUCK! I really do want to be fair and being unfair is not going to get us anywhere.

She wasn't exactly all sugar and spice before this situation  to boot, so I assumed....

James did two days worth of phonics and reading today. He started off with a chip on his shoulder and was doing stuff wrong just to be wrong. Threatened with having to write lines he snapped out of it and did wonderfully.

If I only have one piece of advice to give to new adoptive parents it's this. Don't try to do any serious kind of homeschooling until you have earned at least a partial respect and a working relationship with the child. Until they know where you draw the lines, and that they can't push you past those lines, you will only be up to your armpits in the mire of testing, testing, testing. For me, this testing is easier to deal with in every day living than concentrated into school. It's a recipe for a head on collision. I know that by only giving them minimal amounts of "school" work in the last year and half I have saved us much heartache. Now the twins are ready to do more, be pushed, and they understand what happens when they don't cooperate. It's makes it a thousand times easier. We're really going places with it now. I'm actually not hating the process as much as I feared I was going to even a month ago.

Missy did have a melt down when I sent her to play in her room for an hour. She can't always tell me what the trouble is, so we had a long conversation - mostly a monolog. It finally came out when I asked, "Are you mad because I am doing school with James?"

YES!

"Why?"

Because you are not doing school with ME!!!!!!

The competition is so real that I am committed to only working with one little soul at a time. The other must find something to occupy their time.