"I love homework"

What's the first thing kids say when they see you after school? Yesterday, from my nearly 9 y.o. I received: "Yay, I've got homework!!!"

A self portrait of our son taken when camping recently.

He then proceeded to sit down and do it all with a tremendous focus. He's super excited about having his own desk where he can put stuff inside and keep it organised. He loves his new homework book (they call it an "agenda").

I'm so happy to see this. Not just because it makes life easier for me, but because for many years it's been easier for us to see the bad qualities of his personality, not the good qualities. This intense focus was, in earlier years, used to produce prolonged tantrums, to resist good ideas and generally be a very big parenting challenge. 

I remember one time on our kilometre walk to his Japanese kindergarten that he decided he didn't want to go and he sat down. It took me over half an hour to get him the last 300m to the front door where they had to pick him up and carry him inside forcibly. It left me an emotional wreck and I wondered if there was anything wrong with my child . . . or with me.

Actually truth be told, he resembles someone I know well. My parents will tell stories of how I also refused to budge on occasion. I also loved school, homework and (blushing to admit this) homework books.

So I knew that such determination and focus could be put to good use in the future, if he chose to. It was wonderful to see him use those personality traits yesterday for good rather than negatively. I'm praying it will continue once the novelty of school wears off.