A contractual agreement

Evan signed his first contract today. Just before heading off to bed, he asked me very innocently if there was 听 写 (Chinese Spelling) tomorrow. To which my reply was "you tell me?". When he unearthed his Chinese list, it was evident that there was 听 写 tomorrow.

I had two options.

1. He sleeps late to study for it.

2. He doesn't learn it and faces the consequences of doing badly tomorrow. Both from us and from school.

I chose the latter.

I asked him if he thought I was mad, he said yes.

When I asked him why, he said because he lied.

I told him it wasn't about lying. It was about being responsible for his work. With both Jordan and him, I forget dates and what they have to do. It's impossible for the most Type A amongst us and I am by no stretch of the imagination, super Type A. So I tell him that I am upset because he was irresponsible. And that came with consequence.

Thereafter, I asked him what did he hope to get for 听 写. He said full marks. So we drew up an agreement that anything less than full marks would have consequences because he forgot to study for it.

A concept he is unfamiliar with.

We came up with a list of the 5 things he enjoyed doing most and ranked it.
1. Playing with our neighbour, Kate.
2. Going downstairs to play.
3. Going on a night walk.
4. Watching television on the weekend.
5. Reading his Star Wars books.

The agreement:
If Evan gets 100, nothing gets taken away.
If Evan gets 95, no Star Wars books for a day.
If Evan gets 90, no watching television on Saturday.
If Evan gets 85, no night walk for that week.
If Evan gets 80, no going downstairs to play for 3 days.
If Evan gets 75, no playing with Kate for 4 days.

Signed and agreed by him, witnessed by Jordan.

It's up on the fridge in the kitchen with everything else important, for everyone to see.
 
I'm not sure if he truly understands consequence yet but I sure hope this teaches him something because behind the 'zen' mommy was a one who was about blow a gasket and have an aneurysm, all the while still in work clothes.