Today was the last day of school!

I simply can't believe that I now have a 1st grader and a 4th grader. Where has all the time gone?

I cleaned out my truck today, cuz it was N-A-S-T-Y, and found my second grade picture from 1979/80. Jesus...30 fucking years ago. Sigh.

Anyway, I picked the kids up from school and took them to Dunkin' Donuts and then to Little Caesar's. I got a couple extra pizzas to share with the neighborhood kids as an impromptu "last day of school party" even though almost all the other kids in the neighborhood have been out of school for a number of weeks. They're on traditional calendar, while my kids are on year round.

So the kids played, ate pizza, played rock band, went outside and ran around in the rain, biked...while I cleaned chain parts in the sink and got depressed about how many I've already cleaned and how many are left to clean. I clean them individually with a spinbrush toothbrush. There's still a pile sitting (rusting) in my sink that I'll clean later tonight after the kidlets are in bed. When I got sick of cleaning chain parts, I decided to play rock band. So I played guitar, then sang. Then my little one came in and accompanied me on drums while I sang. Then the other kids came in and I played guitar (cuz they all think I'm really good :D) for a few songs with them. It was fun.

Tomorrow I'm taking 4 of the neighborhood kids, maybe 5, and we're meeting a few other kids, to see The Last Airbender. I'm pretty excited about seeing it. I think it's going to be a great movie and all the kids are thrilled to see it.

Today was a pretty good day. I got lots done while the kids were at school - filed, cleaned, took a shower (yay!).

I'm hoping tomorrow is a good day too.

I might have gone a little far today

The principal called me today to say that M was suspended for 1 day for the stealing incident from last week. I kinda freaked. Surprising, isn't it? Sadly, it's not. I called the hubs and told him what was going on and as usual, he is much more prepared to deal with things as they come than I am. Gimme an hour or 2 and I'll stop freaking and start thinking, but he lives this shit every day at work, so he can just spew stuff out like it's air.

So I go to pick M up and I ask to talk to the principal. Ok...if you know me, then you know when I get really stressed or really angry, I cry. Crying seems to bother people, and I hate that. Today it was just stress boiling over the top and out through my eyes in the form of tears. The principal (who I really do love - she's been awesome) looks at me and says "Bless your heart." LOL I stopped crying and explained to her that I've been really stressed about school lately because things seem to be so negative with M. I went on to say that I think we need to change the way we deal with M, both at school and at home - to catch him doing good things instead of always highlighting the bad things. He has started to internalize that shit and feels like he can't do anything right.

She told me that 3rd grade can be a challenge for most kids, but then add on M's issues on top and it can be explosive. Yeah...ya think? I told her, kind of bluntly, that the reality of the situation is that while being in 3rd grade may mean one thing for the majority of kids, for MY kid, we may need to slow the roll and get him on a positive note before we try to transition him to being more of a 3rd grader. We talked about social stories, talking to the counselor to find positive things about himself, "community service" for when he does have inappropriate behavior, not getting to go see a favorite teacher as a consequence for inappropriate behavior....lots of stuff.

I kind of unloaded on her.

On another note, I feel badly for his teacher that she has to deal not only with him and his IEP, but other "different" kids and their quirks. I cannot imagine that she has an easy job, and I really hate to push this issue. But I have to be an advocate for my kids - nobody else is going to do it. And when I see my kid coming home with so-so days fairly consistently, that tells me that the system we have in place isn't working. I need for my kid to come home with good days so that he can feel positive about both himself and school. Being the kind of kid that he is, it's important to foster a pleasant feeling about school in general.

I hope I didn't go too far, but I fear I might have.

Obama wants kids in school for longer

Read this

I'm not fond of this idea. My older kid has enough issues and putting him in school for any longer during the day than he currently is would be detrimental not only to him, but to our family. Perhaps a better idea would be to look at how schools are structured currently and do a different job of targeting kids who show promise in certain areas. While this may sound strange coming from a history major, perhaps it's time we cut back on social studies, etc and spend longer in math, science music/art, and computer skills - which should include programming, etc.

If we put kids in school for so much longer per day or on weekends, when are we supposed to teach the things they need to know from us, their parents? Talk about stress! No way would I want to try to put the three or four hours of things we do every night into one or two. Not only that, but kids are not machines. They need time to relax, learn social skills by playing with other kids or parents and time to simply be kids.