God is faithful!!

[Mercy]

I am updating for any ladies that may have been lurking or interested in any desisions made for my oldest son, whom I am really burdened for right now. He is turning twelve, which is a lil bit of a transitional phase as it is, but he has a very similar personality as me...similar stregths and...similar weaknesses. I have a very difficult time not taking on his responibilites. Im not sure if that makes sense, but we have familiar spirits and its easy for me to be too connected to him. Faithfulness is not an inherant quality for either of us. When we have a task at hand we tend to either do it halfway or put it off. Obviously I am a mother and thankfully the Lord has shown me and helped me to grow along the way. I am much better now at putting myself fully into the task at hand. BUT...when my son comes along and is fighting this same battle....I feel like *I* have regressed. I take on HIS guilt. Ugh. I really struggle with follow through, especially when it comes to giving consequences to him!

So, now that I have completely shared my sins before you all....here is a lil glimpse of the plan God is giving me to work this through. Still dont know all of the decisions, but I know he wont be going off to school!!

First thing the Lord worked out is that my son got a volunteer position at the local childrens museum!! That is such a blessing. He is excited and I think it is going to be a big part of the solution. The lady is so sweet, but she seems like she will really challenge him. Im really excited about this. I am going to just going to do half pace with him for a few weeks till i get a feel for how his days will work when he goes there. Just three days per week in the afternoons.

Anyway, thats the plan for now and we will see how this works out.
Thank u so much for any prayers!!!!!!!
God bless all of you,
Mercy

[Knittinfarmgirl]

Wonderful! I hope that things get better with this great opportunity! I know you've been in anguish over what to do.

[my3sons]

Mercy - I'm glad to hear the Lord has led you to continue homeschooling your oldest ds, and the children's museum sounds like a neat opportunity. Rest assured you are not the first mom to see some of your own character qualities being played out in your dc's lives. I know I have - the good and the bad! We are all just doing the best we can here, and through God's grace and strength, striving for better each day. I think you will find it is easier to train your ds to do well with task completion as his teacher at home. I have friends who have dc in ps and are struggling with dc about the same age as your ds (and a few older dc), with exactly the same problem. It is difficult for them to hear that their dc are not completing work in school as they should, and yet they are not able to be there with them to help train them to have the skills to do better with this. Likewise, it is difficult for the parents to help their dc complete their school work at home, as the dc often forget all or a portion of the work at school, or the dc didn't listen carefully to what they were supposed to do and now are at home and can't remember what they are to be doing, or they have no idea when things are due. Their grades continue to plummet, and that just makes the dc feel hopeless or apathetic about it. I can see school is becoming something both parents and dc are hoping they can just make it through somehow. Anyway, all of this makes it very difficult to teach task completion successfully. Maybe breaking a task down into parts would help? I have found I do better with this approach, as it makes each part of the task more manageable, and there are checkpoints along the way to make sure I'm headed in the right direction. For example, instead of setting a goal to exercise 5 times a week, I do better if I jot down which days I'm going to exercise, and what I will try to do. I don't always get it done exactly as the little paper says, but I do usually exercise 4-5 times somehow within the week. Anyway, that's just an idea, but keep on pressing on with ds, keep on turning to the Lord, and I know I will need to do the same - together, we'll keep getting closer to the target - because you are right, God IS faithful!

In Christ,
Julie