A Reading Schedule is a good thing

I have decided that maybe people do know what they are talking about when it comes to child rearing and schedules... Let me clarify, I mean a schedule where certain things are to be done at certain times - you know what I mean, wake up, go to school, go to bed, etc.  Not schedules of the calendar nature, i.e. soccer, music, karate, baseball, voice all taking place two times a week with tournaments on Saturday.  In that calendar nature I truly believe today's children are over-scheduled.

For school, Matthew has one constant assignment as homework every night.  He is to read for 10 minutes.  Now, to me, this does not sound like that big of an issue.  (I am quite certain my parents can remember checking to make sure I was sleeping, only to find me under the covers with a flashlight reading a book.) He can sit and play "Call of Duty" for an hour and not realize that 10 minutes have gone by, let alone 60 minutes.  He can sit and have you read two or three books to him at a time.  But ask him to grab a book and read himself... every 45 seconds he was asking if he had read 10 minutes yet.  A task that should have taken only 10 minutes was actually taking 20 because of all the starts and stops he had.

It used to be such a hassle to get him to read.  He would whine about having to do it, and I would put it off.  Because, honestly, who likes listening to a whiny kid?  I think I detest whining more when it comes from my own than when I hear it from others, but that just makes sense.  We are all more tolerant of others' children than we are of our own.  And because I let him off the hook earlier in the day it would be a last minute scramble to get the reading in before he had to go to bed.  Frustrating on many levels, for both of us.

So now?? Yes, we have a schedule.  Well, maybe routine is the better word.  He gets home from school, takes off his backpack, and knows to grab a book.  He will read for about five minutes now before asking if it has been 10 minutes yet.  He knows that in order to get his after-school snack or be able to watch any of "his" shows on tv, he has to get his reading done first. The other day I added an additional incentive to the package.  But I think I'm going to change how the incentive is awarded.  In future, he will have to read until I tell him his time is up, without asking if it's been 10 minutes, in order to get the additional incentive.  This idea makes me smile in an evil sort of way, yet I'm confident it will work.