Thursday, January 14, 2016

......Fall for Math and Raz Kids......do I love you or hate you?

I am fully aware that the future of our children's homework is moving to the computer. I'm not against that notion, but I think old fashioned ways of learning are being ruled out too quickly. 
With that being said, I have a love-hate relationship with the family laptop that our children use. As much as I think there are beneficial programs and do reinforce class lessons, the laptop causes a lot of arguing in our household. Here's what usually goes down:
Mae butts in and pounds the keyboard for a turn, just as you'd expect a 2 year old to do. The sister trying to do her assignment is frustrated and nudges (pushes) Mae away and she immediately starts screaming and wants to be held. 
Brody is frustrated because he doesn't have a log in or password for "Fall for Math" or "Raz" and whines that ABC Mouse is for babies. I am pretty sure he throws some "it's not fairs" in there and a "I'm never gonna get to Kindergarten." I am not sure what he's saying because Mae is still screaming in my ear. 
Both of the big girls will count the exact minute on how long the other sister got to use the computer and if one gets more time than the other, there is an argument. Usually the sister who is spending time talking to me about how we treat others in our home (not pushing Mae) gets the least time on her homework since we are re-visiting the family rule of keeping our hands on our own body. So now she's upset because I wouldn't "let her do her homework."
Today, we shut down the laptop for the rest of the week and our math homework was finding and counting all the loose change in drawers and odd places. 
Mae has no interest in what the big girls are doing, Brody played with legos and the big girls found $17 in change while doing their homework. They may have even smiled at each other too 👭
Win for the Balderach house tonight.