Life is a continual process of refinement

After a couple of episodes of "frustration" from Samuel this week, including today when he couldn't figure out what he wanted to write about, that I need to implement more structure for both of our sakes. Most of this semester's writing projects have been following Samuel's interests.

Samuel bought himself the new Fire Emblem game yesterday, and was anxious to play/didn't want to focus on his studies. I'm tired of accepting the responsibility for keeping him focused, so. . .new policy!

Harnessing his interest in Scouts, today he selected the eight elective merit badges he still needs to complete his Eagle Scout award. Written and oral assignments have been selected and scheduled from the selected and required merit badges. One example, Samuel picked two animal reports to take through the research and writing process, and then use those both for his writing portfolio for the county home school evaluation and for the Nature merit badge. That'll keep him busy for the next several days/a week, and selecting books for the research will start on his Reading merit badge.

And the structure will continue with a daily/weekly checklist to be completed before recreational activities. And if I have to deal with high-energy expressions of frustration, he will lose some of his recreational options.

Hopefully this structure will be what we both need to have this project work better for both of us.