Work In Halves

I found this poem Here at School @ Home and thought it was wonderful:

Work by Anonymous

Work while you work,

Play while you play,

This is the way to stay happy each day.

All that you do,

Do with your might,

Things done in halves are never done right.

Boy did we need this in our house! While the author at School@Home makes a point of stressing balance, in our house we really need to adopt the "work while you work". Reagan being the oldest, and therefore most helpful, really needs to learn to give himself to each task. He takes after his mother, and in fear of failure, doesn't want to give his all to anything. So I find him playing instead of cleaning, daydreaming instead of studying. It's something that I'm grateful to be here to work with him on.

I believe the School at Home family has an advantage over us, in that they don't watch TV, at all. I think television (while containing some WONDERFULLY educational programming) also contains too much about kids who have no responsibility. While I once was more strict about tv, I've let it go lately because I've been so tired. But tired is no excuse. His foundation needs to be solid.

Today for school we're going to copy and illustrated the poem, and then tape it to his door as a reminder. I think it's important for our children to learn about a good work ethic, which DOES include time for play. But in our house, there's a little too much play time.