Fruitful day

Today was another busy, but fruitful, day. Connor's new Biology and Math tutor came this morning at 9am. She will be coming Mon. Wed. and Fridays from 9-10am, now that Connor is finished with his computer programming class. His new tutor seems enthusiastic, and at least Connor will have someone working with him so that I can go to the gym without guilt. At 10:15, when I arrived home, Connor was studying his vocabulary flashcards by the fireplace. He was all cozy and focused. After vocabulary, it was time to work on his Chinese homework. His Chinese tutor (who came yesterday) gave him homework to complete before his next lesson,and he was able to do the work independently. At 11:30, I explained to Connor his English essay assignment for the day. For an hour, he diligently typed up an essay on the short story, "The Necklace." Unfortunately, he once again wrote a summary, not a thesis driven essay. He was totally bummed when I told him that he would have to rewrite the essay after Tae Kwon Do class. Off we went to Tae Kwon Do for an hour. After Tae Kwon Do, Connor decided to practice guitar for 30 minutes before attempting the rewrite. I was lucky today; it is Friday and Connor was invited to stay overnight at his friend's house. I used the invitation as a prize, or maybe just a threat. "If you want to stay overnight at Joe's tonight, you need to have a cohesive, thesis-driven essay before 5pm." What a difference it made. Actually, it also helped that I forced Connor to sit down and plan his essay in graphic organizer format. Connor wants to just write; he assumes that the words will just come and all will be great. That works for poetry and creative writing pieces, but an essay needs to have a thesis, structure and organization. Writing essays can be tough for a creative writer such as Connor. Anyway, he did complete a pretty good essay in the end. His thesis was that although some people might argue that Mathilde was a victim of fate, he believes that her free-will (and subsequent bad choices) were her ultimate undoing. Hmmm. Not bad. So that was our day today.