Good Day... or maybe not...

So I thought today was a good day. I made Kate a chart, told her that she could do her work in any order, at any time, with as many breaks as she wanted, but that she needed to do them all without whining or complaining to get a sticker when she was done. When she earns 10 stickers, she gets a trip to the DI for a  new toy- which I guarantee will be a new stuffed animal, the girl is seriously obsessed, her menagerie has grown to like 50 said animals. Her bed is a virtual stuffed zoo. They drive me crazy!

But I digress. We took it easy. I didn't have any pre-conceived notions of how long it would take her to get through her stuff, I just chilled. When she wanted to take a break and color, I did laundry, did homework with Ella, played with Zeke. It was low key and I thought, went very well. She finished just in time to eat lunch and walk to school.

She even said that she didn't want to go to school at all. She'd rather just do math at home too! I told her she was a Fickle Pickle. She thought that was funny.

Fast forward to tonight. "I want to go to school all day tomorrow!"

Huh? Why?

"I just do."

Why?

"I don't want to walk to school with the little kids, I want to walk with my friends."

OK, but you realize that you will still have to come home after school and do all your work, and that will probably mean no play time with your friends?

"Yes."

And you'll do it without whining or complaining, even though you'll be tired and want to play?

"Well, I didn't know we had to do so much!" (seriously, it would take us like 45-60 min. max if she did it all in one sitting)

OK. But now that you DO know, you still think you're going to want to go to school all day, and then come home and do all our work too?

"Yes."

OK. We'll try it, but if you come home and whine, that will be the last day you go to school all day.

Too harsh? I kept my cool. I talked calmly and quietly- even though inside I was screaming my head off. Reasoning doesn't seem to work with her. Surely she understands that now she'll just have twice as much to do?!

I probably shouldn't even worry about it. Tomorrow she'll get up, and decide she doesn't want to go after all, and we'll repeat this day- much like Groundhog Day- for the rest of the year. I'm not sure I can handle that though. I know we made the right decision to take her out. But this fight is going to get old fast.

I need to just say, "OK, you can go to school." $10 says she won't want to in the morning.

She's only 7... just breathe...