The other day, I gave two 8-year-old boys a reprieve from our daily morning TouchMath because ……   (I had a good reason).

That omission of expected summer academic routine threw everything into chaos  (exactly the opposite of when kids complain about something, begging to escape it.)

Well, I can promise you I only made that mistake once.   The next morning, we were right back to “nothing fun happens until we get our TouchMath done”.

They had come to expect it and took comfort from the ritual.

I learned that John wants to (sometimes) do good work.

He had just done “ugly” work and I said so. The smiley face on the paper wasn’t smiling.

He then begged to do another TouchMath problem to earn a happy face.  Gave me NO lip—-did it with a smile.    With a huge grin on his face, he received the expected  happy face.

So, a secret you already knew: Kids (with learning differences OR NOT) like structure.  Tough, direct, loving structure.

Nice leverage to take advantage of, don’t you think?

Best,

Gayle