Motivational Issues

This morning did not start well. One of us - ahem Francesca - decided that she did not want to get dressed and went through all sorts of rigmarole, as though hell bent on being as uncooperative as possible. There was a loss of life. More on that in a moment. By the time we needed to set off for playgroup, she was dressed but had not had breakfast.

Her mood improved on the morning walk to playgroup and back, such that by the time we got home, I was able to let her know what her morning tasks were and promise her some tv time when she had finished. Free time always follows 'set' tasks and Friday is the day when they're allowed to watch CBeebies.

So, her first task was to have breakfast which she despatched in about 35 minutes. I know :(

Then, behind schedule, she started to say she wasn't going to do violin practise. She sneaked into the lounge and put on her story tape. Doh. I docked a 'life' at this point.

The children have 3 'lives' each day which are used as leverage and bribery over tricky moments such as not wanting to do violin. If they have lives left at the end of the day, they can watch something on iplayer after bath time.

Anyway, she did do violin and, after that, settled to a concerted effort in her English task, which was to find interesting adjectives that Roald Dahl had used in The Enormous Crocodile. She worked hard, I must say, and got to ten adjectives without a fuss. Here she is, studying the text while I baked bread, cheese straws and a chocolate log for lunch:

By this time, she was much cheered and more motivated. Just Maths to go... She chose to do some of her Heinemann book and managed to do one page in about 20 minutes. I let that be enough. It was nearly lunchtime, so she was able to watch about 10 minutes of tv before Elizabeth came back from playgroup with a friend.

After lunch, we all did painting. Francesca got her special watercolours out and spent ages making a great job of her painting (it was a picture to colour in) which she is going to give to her friend as a present.

I was pleased with her effort and concentration (finally!) I wish I'd taken a photo of the finished piece. It was very vibrant(!) Are rabbits orange, by the way? That's how she always depicts them.

Then it was time for the violin lesson, which she didn't want to go to but then said was her best bit of the day. So fickle! I wonder where she gets that from?!