(no subject)

[mereilin]

I bit the bullet and reset the wireless router today, then logged in and reset the wireless password, effectively booting the 8th grader off the internet until such time as I feel like giving him the password. He is so far behind on his homework that I'm completely overwhelmed by it, and it's technically not even my problem.

He may not be working on it now, but I know he's not playing minecraft or skyping his friends. He complained because he wanted to type his homework into his Google Docs account, but I didn't cave. He can use Word. Or notepad for that matter.

I'm done.

Comments

[carise.livejournal.com]

Next step... parental block/timeout on the cable box for the eldest child? ;)

[mereilin.livejournal.com]

I know, right? I haven't done it because I so resent the idea of being the only responsible adult in this household.

He did spend the entire day working on house stuff today, and less than an hour with the TV on. A couple of hours on facebook but hey, he's only human. :)

[desyana.livejournal.com]

Good for you! Brian essentially spent his entire junior high years off line.
No clue whether it really helped or not but /I/ felt empowered and like I made a difference. And I didn't cave. He learned from that!

[mereilin.livejournal.com]

I let him back on after he made a big dent in his homework, but he spent tonight screwing around. At 10 I sent him to bed and changed the password again. GRAR!

[waterdragon.livejournal.com]

You can play minecraft without being on the internet just FYI.

[mereilin.livejournal.com]

Yeah. There's still a lot of crap on his computer he could be distracting himself with. But losing the internet is a big blow, and the first thing I've ever found that had even a marginal effect on his behavior.

[htnatch.livejournal.com]

That must have been so hard to do, but you are probably on a very good track.
I can't help but think that maybe failing a year would be good for him?

[mereilin.livejournal.com]

It was hard to do. It sucked, and continues to suck. I think this isn't the year he's going to repeat, but he will definitely have to repeat grade 9 if he doesn't get passing grades; it's a matter of course credits. His counselor says he's too smart for that, but I can't figure out how to get him motivated. :(

[htnatch.livejournal.com]

I absolutely hate it when counselors say 'too smart to fail'. If a student isn't smart enough to figure out how to not fail, then they aren't smart enough. Really. Book smart is not the only thing a person needs to succeed in life.

[hellixe.livejournal.com]

I would also go to his computer and make sure he has an assigned IP address (so his computer always gets the same one on the router) and set that IP to only work certain times (if your router allows it. Some do, some don't).

[mereilin.livejournal.com]

Ours apparently does. I discovered it shortly after I reset the passwords, mucking around in the menu under "parental controls." Time limits are technically possible, but I'm still working out how to make them effective. He does seem to need some internet access for his homework. Thanks for the tip!

[hellixe.livejournal.com]

See if you can block certain sites with those parental controls for the time limits. If he likes Minecraft so much (or World of Warcraft or whatever), try blocking them all but certain times. Or disallowing all but certain websites that he can research stuff for homework.