The boys

They just got a NERF gun each, after much anticipation ~ almost 2 months. Caden and Ethan has to both collect 8 stars each on their reward charts to redeem the NERF guns. Caden has longed gotten all the stars that he needs but we told him that he can't get his gun as he needs to wait for his brother to finish collecting the required number of stars so that both of them can play together. The way to do it quickly is to contribute his stars (those that he got beyond the row of 8) to Ethan as suggested by me. Caden was open to the idea and displayed his generosity and offered his stars to Ethan each time he got them.

This sat, we decided to release their rewards - in consideration that the school holidays are starting this week and Caden has been diligent in his homework in the past weeks. We have started mandatory homework programme for Caden before the Aussie trip but we have a more rigid routine since 2 months ago. I will assign a few pages of homework to Caden each night and stamp the date in the assessment book so that he knows what needs to be done on the following day after school. Typically, I won't assign any homework to him on days he is attending enrichment classes - Tues and Thurs cos we needed him to take his afternoon nap.

Some days, he will call me during my lunch time and ask why he couldn't find any date stamps on his books. It's quite comforting to know that he is now so used with the routine that he will check in with me if he cannot find his assignment. On days when he totally missed out doing his homework, he will look very guilty by the time we returned home from work and confessed to us that he played whole day without doing. But will obediently go inside the room to complete the assigned pages at night, knowing that I will not be happy but able to redeem this mistake if he completes the work on the same day.

Hopefully, he continues to keep up with this momentum and let the routine integrate as part and parcel of his school days so that he will not have too much resistance when his primary years kick off in 2 years time.

Ethan on the other hand, gets fairly mortivated whenever he sees his brother seated down and will also take his books and start writing. I am hoping to set a disciplined environment for the boys while they are still young.

My mother-in-law used to speak to my ah lou in the past if we are exerting too much pressure on Caden whenever I punished him really hard upon knowing that he did not do the homework in the past.. She's of the opinion that Caden is still quite young and should not be forced to work assessment books on a daily basis. And the fact that we have signed him up for phonics and abacus seems too heavy for him to manage. But as the time passed, she's now beginning to see the sense of his responsibility on the assignments that were expected out of him and was quite praiseful with his attitude (that he will check his books everyday and he truly felt terrified when the night falls and homework still gets undone!!). When she saw that Caden's Chinese results from his Kindergarten progress card do not show any much improvement, she took some efforts to find out chinese enrichment classes for Caden and urge us to sign him up!

I think I agree with my friend that we still need our kids to have their childhood so that's why we are also trying to let them play hard on weekends when all the homework gets done!