Whatever It Takes...

Our friend/neighbor has expressed her frustration over her son’s attitude towards his homework. Being an active listener, I asked if she had done this, or that to get him motivated. All has been done to no avail. “What about this?” I offered, for the change of scenario, the Grade 3 boy could come to our house upstairs everyday and do the homework under my supervision. I sit with Sienna anyways for her daily home work. They can do it together. He attends an international school across the street. English is their teaching language. Only one Chinese lesson everyday. Sienna learns Chinese at school and takes one English lesson everyday. I think this will be a mutually beneficial thing to do for the both kids. B started his school already yesterday. Sienna has another week of holiday left and a few holiday homework sessions to finish. So we started our homework time today.

Having Rachel around in Toronto had turned out to be such a rewarding experience for all of us even though in the beginning people didn’t understand what kind of setup that was. I have good feeling about letting Sienna and B work together. They are both great kids.

I remember a dear friend told me an experience she had with her son. At one point of time, the boy’s teacher reported that he always ran into some kind of wrestling with his classmates between the time she dropped him off and the class started. She tried everything in her power to stop him from getting into trouble. No use. Then she decided, every morning, instead of dropping the boy at school, she sat with him at a coffee shop and waited for the school to start. By doing this, she closed a window of opportunity for his bad behaviors to exist. As the time passed, the boy grew out of it and moved on. We cannot solve life’s problems in one day. We can keep trying every way possible or seemingly impossible. I keep referring to the saying that it takes a village to raise a child. We knew our friends long before B or Sienna was born. Now we are living in the same building. I guess we don’t have to live in a village.