Yesterday evening after we reached home Adi was behaving good and started doing all her work one by one… I mean
1. Removing sandal
2. Keeping the sandals in the shoe rack
3. Changing her dress
4. Face wash, hand wash followed by hair dress
5. some days pray god (she says Guru brahma guru vishnu while praying)
6. Eat snacks
Now, the harder one is next. WRITING.
After this incident, yesterday I prepared myself to handle it politely no matter if she writes or not. I told myself that its okay even if she doesn’t write today but the situation should be handled slightly different.
Hence, instead of sitting next to her and staring at her book which in a way increases my temper after a while this time I gave her the math adds & subs printout, asked her to complete one row by herself and then call me for correction… Meanwhile, I continued with my work. You should believe me here she was roaming around with the printout and pencil for the next 2 hours without doing even a single math. I did not yell at her and continued with my work pretending like not bothering her at all though my heart was internally pleading her to finish her writing.
After 2 hours, came the dinner and TV time. Now, she did not come to me (she know how mommy will react and did not want to test mommy unnecessarily).. Silently moved towards M and started bugging him to switch on TV show for her.. He luckily looked at me and I showed him gestures (without her knowledge – we cannot talk loud these days. she finds them all) to ask for the written papers and also to promise her that he will switch on TV provided she finishes at least one row of math. We both just conveyed her politely what we expect from her and continued to do our work giving her some space to think about it. She understood that her wish cannot be accomplished without fulfilling our expectation. So, finished one row in the next 5 minutes (with all correct) and started demanding for the TV show.
I don’t know if this will work out all days but at least I was feeling happy yesterday though she did very little (just one row) than usual
Then, we celebrated this accomplishment (kathi-indri ratham-indri yutham ondru nadandhathu) and as a reward I myself switched on TV and allowed her to eat while watching TV. I generally restrict her from watching TV while eating. I don’t know if this approach is good or bad but definitely realized that being harsh is not going to work out anytime. I am planning to follow this until she gets comfortable with math adds and subs.. Prepared myself that its okay if she misses writing a day or two in this journey..
Temporarily stopped all other stuff like reading, tamil etc… mommy learned one at a time 🙂
She did not demand for a second show. After the show, she switched off TV and accompanied me at kitchen till I finish my work. We chatted for a while after her day, my day, did brushing (she was at the bathroom even before I called out for her)… Normally she makes me wait and call her at least 20 times before heading to bathroom for brushing… Adi was at her best yesterday…
We finished all work on time and the family happily went to bed
Between my littles and me 