Friday 20 January 2012

The Joys of Egypt! (note: enthusiasm of mother not met by enthusiasm of children)

I brought to the table what I thought was an inspiring lapbook for the boys to  fill in  create.


We are used to rolled eyes in this house. I've never quite got used to the groans, though.

At that point I had three choices.

1) start my usual long soap box drone about how much writing they would be doing if they were in school (noteably a lot more than filling one word in and sticking it onto a piece of cardboard) ending in me either sobbing or threatening to phone up the local school.
2) give up any thought of this 'jolly' activity, take on my autonomous parent mentality, and let them fry their brains on Minecraft for the day.
3) smile sweetly and carry on while sticking my fingers in my ears and going la la la la la everytime they complained about having to make a couple of marks on paper with a pencil.

Rightly or wrongly, I opted for 3. (But, being kind, I refrained from the la la la bit)






9 comments:

Carol said...

It's always a comfort to know that the same things go on in other peoples' houses! I must say, you're getting much more creative than I ever did with "Story of the World" - it was as much as I could manage to follow (some) of the book! They did seem to enjoy it though!

Lapbooks never work in this house - they always seem to get forgotten half way through.

Anonymous said...

Thank you so much you got a laugh out of me! Similar scenarios go on in my house.

Pip said...

lol! excellent. I had a moment like that on Monday. I opted for walk away, make a cuppa and see what he does... he gathered himself, stopped flipping out and started to write! lol Popped to Pitt Rivers today and he loved it... but he refused to go to the Egyptian exhibit at the Ashmolean :-( I think our last trip there put him off lol. Pop to my blog if tyou fancy seeing what we got up to!

Ruth said...

Erm..and what is wrong with Minecraft for the day? ;) Seriously tho I have only have two Egyptology fans here ( and one is grown up now and done exams in it) the other is me! We've had varying success with lapbooks. They prefer it if I make them and they look at them afterwards lol

Big mamma frog said...

That's not a bad idea, Ruth. I make it, they look at it...Just think of the hours I could spend with my quill and glue stick making it look beautiful. I could even go 3D and knit some Egyptians for the cover {g}

Carol, Angela and Pip. I do sometimes wonder who is being educated here. I could do a degree in child psychology after all these years :)

Anne B said...

Can I suggest option 4? Shameless bribery involving hot chocolate, whipped cream, marshmallows, chocolate sprinkles and biscuits once task is complete.

Sample conversation with my DS goes

'Don't want to.' (him)
'That's a shame, but it won't take long and then we'll have...' (me, followed by ostentatious filling of kettle and lining up of treat ingredients where he can see them)

Worst case, I get the hot chocolate etc and DRINK IT IN FRONT OF HIM!!! (cue evil laughter...) Hasn't happened often, but he knows it will.

Big mamma frog said...

ah yes, Anne. Sometimes the cookie fairie will magic something tasty for the 'workers', once she sees something happening (sharpening a pencil for half an hour doesn't count).

Unknown said...

I just showed this to my husband and he said "Is this your blog then?"

You've described what happens in our house on a daily basis with at least one of them!

Homeschool family said...

Hello, long time no see (well not since i had a ski slope helmet on!) I've just been catching up on everything you have been doing since Christmas. It is absoloutely amazing (and inspiring) just what i needed to get my backside back into gear!