Tough Love

Last night, in preparation for helping my daughter review for a test, I requested that she bring the following upstairs to the office: her social studies notebook...and something to throw at her.

Lest you think this is cruel and unusual, let me just say that it absolutely is.

It is also very effective.

I first learned how effective when we were on vacation in Disney World a couple of years ago. The timing of this trip caused our daughter to miss some important tests, so we had to interrupt the 24-hour entertainment cycle with a few minutes of study time here and there. With so much distraction, I discovered that the best way to get her to focus was to throw candy corn at her head while she studied.

Not only did this work, but when I posted it to Facebook, I got a lot of responses. (Mostly from women. With children. And mostly in support of my actions.)

It takes a village, people.

She did great on her tests when we returned, so I've implemented the tactic at home, too. Once when quizzing her with math flash cards, I rated her efforts with letter grades. At one point, I shrieked, "F!" while tossing a flash card at her head when I did not feel she was putting her all into the study session.

By the way, her response to my request last night? She came upstairs, straight faced, and placed her notebook and two clementines on my desk.

Which was such a perfect response to my nonsense.

Particularly because they don't leave bruises.