Homework. The good, the bad, and the ugly.

The Good:
Having Connor in preschool two hours a day, three days a week is awesome. Unfortunately, I could easily putter around the house for two hours and never actually DO anything. So I made some ground rules about the things I'm allowed to do while he is at school. Those things are limited to cleaning, homework, and exercise. No TV. No internet. It makes me very productive.

I am currently caught up on homework for the whole week. That means 4 whole days of no homework hanging over my head. 4 WHOLE DAYS!

My goal is to get through this semester without having a nervous breakdown. So far so good. :)

The Bad:
I found out today that Maddy has been lying about getting her homework done. Quite a bit of her homework is to do certain things for a specified amount of time. Such as read for 20 minutes. Not really a way to verify actual reading was done, other than to sit and watch her read. And who wants to do that? I've been trusting her that she was doing it. My mistake.

In her defense she really does have a lot of homework. It's not hard, but it is time consuming. Easily over an hour a day. (None on Friday's or the weekend) Add in Girl Scouts and Gymnastics and she has a busy schedule.

Anyways, lately I've been thinking that she might be cutting corners on the amount of time she spends on things. Maybe reading for 10 minutes instead of 20. For example, I sent her upstairs to do her math flash cards for 30 minutes and then take a shower. She was back down stairs in less than 45 minutes. It's possible that she did what she was supposed to do, but not likely. I've known Maddy for over 8 years now and she hasn't ever been quite that efficient.

Today when she came home from school I asked her about it. If she has been skimping on minutes of homework. She said no. I asked again. She said no. I asked again ("Is that your final answer?"). She buried her face in her hands and started to cry. That's what I thought.

The Ugly:
I've taken TV away for today and then all of next week. And I'm sitting on her bed monitoring the homework as I type. No fun for anyone.