So the thing about Devon is he doesn’t like to be made to do things.  It has to be on his terms. 

They are having a fun contest at school where they track how much they are reading and can win cool prizes with the Anaheim Ducks.    So I am thinking, EASY.  Devon typically reads 1-2 hours a day on a school day.  But with our trip to Utah he lost 2 days with driving there and back and then another day with no reading because of playing with cousins.   Mind you he did choose not to ski one day and stayed home to read instead.   

So yesterday there was no school and it was rainy and cold, so I said he had to read for an hour before he went on the computer.  Then after he was on the computer for an hour and it was lunch time.  I said, you need to read another hour before you can go on the computer again.

Boy was he angry about that.  “This contest is making me HATE reading!” 

Any other rainy day he would have loved to curl up and read with a good book.  He would spend 4 or 5 hours a day doing this on his own.  But because he “has to” or because I asked him to, he doesn’t want to. 

This is his learning personality – self directed.  I really need to step back and let him go.  But at the same time I don’t want him wasting hours on the computer doing nothing.  Yesterday he was on Amazon looking at simulation games to buy.  Had he been doing something more usefuly I may not have minded as much.