SCHOOL UPDATES

• Patrick is thisclose to being sent to his room now during homework time, as we had to do over the summer while working on his "Up to 2nd" workbook, due to the hissy fits he throws. (Geesh - and to think that I PRAYED for boys so I could avoid this drama!)
• Kevin is his classrooms' Student Council Representative. He's very excited about it. Patrick is a bit bummed -- since he won't speak up for himself, he wouldn't tell anyone in his class that he wanted to do it, which is EXACTLY why Kevin decided to "run"... So, I dropped his teacher a note and she asked him to be the alternate Rep for their class so now he's a bit more happy... although of course, Kevin has to tell him how Reps don't count for anything blah blah blah.... Bad news? The meetings are once a week after school so I have to go pick him/them up at 3:25 pm, RIGHT DURING NAP TIME. Shoot me now!! (I know, I know, it's only once a month!!)
• On one of my lists we recently had a discussion about kids & homework. It ended up that some people got a bit defensive; I guess it's one of those "opinions" that shouldn't be discussed, like religion & politics! Anyway, with the difference we're seeing in homework coming home for the boys, it brings to mind something I read recently in "Parents" magazine, where a Mom said that she shuddered to think that if she was spending 30 minutes on homework with her BRIGHT child, how much time other kids might be spending on it! Really makes me feel badly for some of the kids in Kevin's class because those kids may NEVER see the light of day! I just think that teachers need to figure how quickly an "average" kid could accomplish all the work they are proposing for after-school hours... and adjust accordingly. I mean, really -- I think my 7 year olds deserve some "down time"!! Some nights with Kevin we're doing homework right after school... after sports... and then again before bedtime. One night we didn't even get it all done!!!! Oh well! The problem is that we don't try to half-ass stuff, and we'll get homework assignments home that say, "Count up & back by 2's, 5's & 10's". Okay, so, up & back to WHAT NUMBER??? Or... "Have your child tell time on a clock." So I'm just supposed to have him look at a clock and tell me the time, then mark it off as done?? I'm just not really good with subjective directives...
• Patrick got a perfect score on his spelling & sentence test last week. Kevin missed 2 of 14 -- basically because he was rushing to get done & made silly mistakes with capitalization & skipping letters. Hopefully this teacher will be able to break him of the "be the first one done even if it means it's not completely right" attitude.
• We're back to drugging our children with melatonin at night just to ensure they get some sleep. Patrick will stay up until all hours reading, and we typically have to take all the books from under his pillow & keep going in there & pull books out of his hands. Viva la vitamins!! ::eyeroll::