Our son's reaction to a summer homework/computer use policy

2. The Problem
 The way that I see it the problem is that you are worried that our
brains are turning to a rich smooth vanilla pudding because we are
playing too much video games
 You are also worried that we are becoming antisocial and
aggressive because of these games evidenced by the fact that past
summers we have been reluctant to get off the games and do our
work

3. The Suggested Program
 To solve this problem you have come up with a brilliant idea
 For every hour that we spend doing work of some kind, we can
have that hour back in video game time later
 Before we go any further I would just like to say that this is not a
bad idea
 However it needs one very important change and then it will be
perfect

4. My suggested add-on
 I actually think that this program is a good idea and was excited
when I heard about it until a very crucial bit of information was
added
 This information was “you start the day with 0 hours”
 For me this was a deal breaker but I came up with a solution
 It seems logical to me that instead you should start the day with 1
hour

5. Reason #1
Statistics
 I calculated the amount of hours that we typically spend playing
electronics a day during the school year and it came up to 2 hours
during the time leading up to dinner
 Keep in mind this is during the school year, which is a time where we
are normally doing more work than during the summer
 During past summers we almost never do more than 1 hour of work a
day because by the schedules that we create we spread it out evenly.
 With the one hour start at the beginning of the day we can work for this
1 typical hour that we do for homework during the school year and have
our typical 2 hours of electronics time

6. Reason #2
Psychology
 There are many reasons why this is a good change to the plan but the
best reason is psychology
 The current way that the program is, is that you are supposed to get
back what you put in in terms of effort but there are reasons why
without the 1 hour start it is flawed.
 The first reason is that there really is no reason to hurry when you are
getting time equal to what you put in. The way that this program
currently is gives the wrong kind of incentive. It rewards for going as
slow as possible.
 With the 1 hour starting point that I have suggested we will go a lot
faster in terms of finishing our work because with the same amount of
work we will have more free time with my plan and therefore we will
have the good incentive of going at a good pace instead of languishing

7. We Now Interrupt this program
for some breaking news
An
Add-on Idea
Has appeared
 Idea by my brother

8. My Brother’s Idea: Computer
Time From Exercise
 The idea that my brother is proposing is that for every hour of
exercise that we do we would get half of that in computer time
 This is an good idea because
 A: It encourages us to go outside more and do more physical
activity
 B: It will make us less chubby by encouraging us to go outside and
therefore our weight will go down
 C: It is a fun way of earning time and will motivate us

9. Conclusion to my Add-on
 In my opinion this is not just a very good idea but it is a necessary
idea if we are going to make this program work.
 It has a lot of potential and could make for a good summer but only
if we have a starting 1 hour
 This hour fixes all the problems and I have put real time and effort
into this so I hope that you will take it seriously and at least consider
my idea