Before the summer started, I read "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell- a book about success and what makes some people successful and some people not. One major factor in the success of adults, apparently and according to this book, is whether or not their parents were mean enough to make them do educational work during summer break of elementary school. The kids who have super mean parents grow up to be more successful than the ones who have nice parents who let them watch iCarly and Spongebob all summer. I tried to be a mean parent this summer by making my kids do tons of work. I can't say I was totally successful, because I think my kids might have memorized every single episode EVER of iCarly and Spongebob- not just memorized the plot lines, I mean, actually memorized them word for word.
But I had some small successes, including a lot of reading fun books from the library. I tried to require book reports of all the books Rocket read, which was like pulling teeth. However, he did enjoy writing a playground blog. I think he was motivated by the thought that his writing would actually be in public view and possibly useful to someone. I can understand that. He was very proud of his blog and was always very excited to hear feedback from people who read it. Here is a link to it for your play ground hunting needs:
His last entry was pretty funny and creative, although a little bit confusing. He would write out his playground review on paper and then I would type it into the blog format. I tried making him type it himself at the beginning of the summer, but that proved to be too difficult. School starts tomorrow, and I am hoping a little bit of my meanness will have payed off, making them more successful students. If not, hopefully they will be able to spout off Nickelodeon trivia better than any other kid at recess- which might be considered successful too.
3 comments:
sometimes my kids say things and i think to myself, "wow! that was really witty for a 9/6/2 year old!" and then i'll ask "where did you hear that?" and they usually reply with "spongebob." or "icarly." or even once in a while "garfield."
and i laugh and feel happy that they used the terminology appropriately.
i suck at parenting.
I've encountered VERY similar situations, except when I ask them where they thought of that, they say "oh I just thought it up", and then I think they're geniuses. But then later, I will be doing something and overhear it on the TV. And them I'm like "HEY! You said you thought that up!!!!!!!" Sneaky geniuses.
I've been a combo of both mean and nice this summer...workbooks (did really well in the 1st couple of weeks) to Cartoon Network (most days since the workbooks faded into the background). Have enjoyed Rocket's blog tho - and have discovered new parks thanks to him.
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