Tales of a 9th grade Procrastinator

Well, I'm officially over taking pictures of my kids in this house. All of our days run together mindlessly. How many pictures can I really take of my kids on their electronics or doing their school work? Or how many pictures of my pets does one really need to see?

Spaz after a bath

I wanted to get out of the house today, even if it was just to drive down Hwy 9 to the trash dump with my windows open. Yet, I'm currently sitting upstairs in the bonus room (aka Jayce's room, my office, my craft room) supervising Jayce to make sure he's actually completing his online assignments.

You know, I always wondered if Jayce would prefer online school to brick and mortar school. It wouldn't matter if he was having trouble socially at school. Or who he sat with at lunch. He'd be able to finish all his assignments in a few hours and have a lot more free time to game with his online friends. He'd be able to sleep late and eat more often, which is always a concern with him.

But now?

Absolutely not.

I thought the transition to schooling at home was an easy one. That is, until I discovered that Jayce wasn't keeping up with his assignments. And the more behind he got, the more he stressed out about it and the more he continued to stick his head in the sand about them.

It started with English. He told me last Tuesday night he was 6 assignments behind. Some of those assignments included reading multiple chapters of To Kill a Mockingbird, submitting online quizzes about said chapters, and writing essays on the theme.

Um, yeah.

So, I wrote down all 6 assignments, including the current week assignments, and we started around 1 PM each day after he was up for an hour, meds kicked in, and food in his belly. I'm happy to report that he's completely caught up in English I right now.

He was just about to start back playing Geometry Dash when I asked about his Science, PE, and Chorus assignments. He originally told me last Friday that he was all caught up in Science class. That was a lie. He's currently working on catching up last week's assignments as I'm typing this. As for Chorus, he is 2 weeks behind. And PE? He totally missed the attached calendar his coach sent out with daily exercises to be completed the entire month of April. It's April 20th and he's done none of it.

Here's me silently screaming.

Yet, I can't get mad at him for acting exactly like his mom. I have a laundry list of things to do and haven't done most of it. Sometimes I get a mental block that just prohibits me from getting stuff done. I used to be really bad at paying bills. I was only responsible for a medical bill here or there and my student loans during my married years, but I'd seriously have trouble sitting down and doing it. Thank goodness I got over it because now there's no one but me here to pay bills.

It's a weird phenomenon. I actually feel MORE productive when I'm in my normal crazy busy schedule. Having less free time actually makes me use my free time wisely. I think this is what is happening to Jayce as well. When he's at school, there's nothing to focus on except school. So he gets his stuff done. When I'm at the preschool or at Hendrix, my focus is only on my students and what I need to do to prepare to educate them. When I'm finally home with Jocelyn, I am motivated to catch up on dishes and laundry and all the other daily household chores because I've actually missed my home after being gone all day. Weird, huh.

Another mental roadblock is the the absence of deadlines. Don't feel like mopping the floor today? No worries. I can always do it tomorrow. Or the next day. I'm not hosting book club or MOMS Club events, so what's the urgency in a clean house? Didn't end up taking the trash today? Who cares? What's one more day?

Looks like I need to take a page from my son and actually write a list of everything I need to accomplish every day. And no, binge watching Netflix shouldn't be on there :)