FLYLADY: Back to Basics: Timer Testimonial for Teenagers
Mar 1
Dear FlyLady,
I just want to share with you how your system is helping me help my 14 yr old son. He is a procrastinator, big time, too. He hates to read. His dad dropped the bomb on him that, after much nagging, if he didn't get his 200+ page book read he couldn't watch the superbowl! Now you have to understand, he has not done any independent reading all year! And it's required and they're tested on it for points that apply to their grade.
So, I got out the timer... I shared with him the 15 min concept. I kept him company while he read, then I read with him back and forth. He (we) really got in to the book. We spent about 6 hours over the course of 3 days reading, and finished that book!
I shared with him many flylady acronyms, showed him my printed routines, confessed my own procrastination sins, and it really seemed to click for him. I explained the cycle of stress he was creating for himself, and doesn't he deserve better, since it only costs 15 mins at a time???
We then took it a step further and mapped out a reading plan for the rest of the year that will get him through the books he needs to read and get his points. He is in control of developing his new reading routine, and fair consequences are in place if he chooses not to read. No more superbowl bombshells, yelling or feeling completely overwhelmed and angry on his end. I think he's ready and the time is right.
And he knows that I believe he can do it! 15 mins at a time, and a little mother/son book bonding on the weekends just might change our world!
Flap, Flap, Dinging in Gladstone, MO
You leave old habits behind by starting out with the thought, 'I release the need for this in my life'. -Dr. Wayne W. Dyer
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