High Five for Homework!
A little role playing goes a long way
#DIYdyslexia
Say the word “Homework” out loud, and you will probably notice a physical reaction as a result. Does your heartrate increase a bit or your tummy feel a bit queasy? It’s possible you even feel your shoulders tense and your jaw tighten. How about your child sitting within hearing range of you? How did her facial expression shift? Sure enough, if your house is like most, homework is not on your top ten list of fun family time activities, and that is on an average day. When you consider pushing to get assignments complete as holidays and summer break approach, the stress meter definitely increases. As a home school teacher of four different grade levels, I remember distinctly the pressure of covering the curriculum and getting all the material finished while making sure no one was late for ballet, horseback riding lessons, or play practice. The struggle is real!
The homework challenge is admittedly elevated when you are a parent or teacher helping a child with a reading struggle such as dyslexia. In a perfect world we desire for seat work time to run efficiently and productively with a steady flow of progress; however, time constraints can become harsh task masters. As a result, negative emotions such as anger and frustration can begin to build right along with the stress of meeting deadlines. I remember one episode in particular when tempers began to flare while I was working with Katy, my daughter who has dyslexia. I realized quickly as I demonstrated long division for what seemed like the umpteenth that we were both becoming annoyed with each other. As you can imagine, along with our increased frustration came an equally opposite decrease in productivity. Sadly, it was a train wreck waiting to happen. Thankfully, I had enough sense to step away from the situation and consult my life coach (a.k.a. my husband). His aptly timed wisdom had saved me from regretful behavior many times before, and this day it came through again! His words were short, sweet, and to the point, “Susan, get the emotion out of it.”
With that simple sentence he said so much. He was right; I needed to get the emotion out of it. I felt immediately convicted by the understanding that I was not only teaching Katy as her teacher, but as her mom as well. I was delivering learning instruction to her with a mix of parental perspectives that only a mother has for her child. While Mark’s advice was clear and concise, I pondered how to actually accomplish the feat of separating my parental concerns and feelings from my teaching time. Suddenly, I had an idea. I would actually pretend I was working with someone else’s student. What a moment of brilliance straight out of every little girl’s playbook, Pretending 101. I mean, why not give it a try? So, I did. As Katy and I resumed our homework time, I imagined that I was justher math teacher, and in those moments came the freedom to simply focus on the material at hand. No longer were we burdened with performance pressures, deadlines, and curriculum completion goals that were only serving to threaten our productivity and ultimately our relationship. Separating myself from the outcome and presenting myself in a more professional manner ended up bringing the most value to Katy as a student, and that’s what teaching is all about. I’m also happy to report that it kept our mother-daughter relationship intact too! Yes, a little bit of role playing goes a long way:)
