The Right Decision

Last week I made a scary decision. Almost as frightening as when I let my nanny go. I took my son out of his aftercare school program. He's in 4th grade and is expected in aftercare to do his homework and then have a little free time. The problem is he never got his homework done correctly. My son needs a little guidance and there wasn't proper teacher supervision for homework so of course he raced through it to get to his free time. Then, when he did get home we had to redo everything until well into the evening.

What a mess!

I'm a working mom and business owner, which for anyone who owns a small business knows is non stop and never ending, but I do have some flexibility with my schedule being that I'm the boss. For those of you with a 9 to 5, there are homework clubs. However, without me there to direct my son, he would easily fall into computer game neverland, bang on his drums to Nirvana, or ride his bike up the block with his buddy's. 

So I got tough and made our after school schedule to fit both our needs.

Wow, there's lots of homework in 4th grade.  Much more than when I was a kid. We spend about 2 hours reviewing all his lessons and finishing his homework. He then has to read for at least  1/2 hour. I'm happy to say it's working out beautifully. My son is feeling confident and doing great in starting the new school year. He finishes his work earlier, eats dinner and then has free time to do as he pleases. Then I get a couple of hours to finish up my business calls before I put him to sleep, walk the dog, clean the dishes, do whatever else needs to be done and then of course, go back to my computer and work until the wee hours.

Yes, It was a scary decision, just like letting my nanny go, but I know I made the right move. Twice!