Today... I made a difference by purchasing stuff for my son's 2nd grade classmates. I'm making goody bags for all... Candy, Christmas Pencils, Christmas Erasers, Christmas Straws and Christmas Ornaments for all! His classroom only has 15 kids. I made 30 bags. Enough for all the 2nd graders in the school. I also made goody bags for the kids that live in our neighborhood. I wrote out Christmas Cards for everyone that lives in our lil community. Doing my best to spread the Christmas Spirit to everyone I know! :)
It may not seem like much... but it shows those around you that you care. :)
Showing posts with label school. Show all posts
Showing posts with label school. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Thursday, November 8, 2007
Bonfires and Kindergarten Court
This week is Homecoming at Shecky's school. Tonight they had the coronation of the PreK-8th grade Duchesses and a bonfire. It was ADORABLE! The little girls in their fancy dresses. The lovely corsages and Homecoming mums. The escorts whether it was the proud papa or an adorable kid from their class. The 2 inch high heels... WHU???
Mom and I were looking at the girls. Many of the younger ones, we're talking 1st and 2nd graders, had high heels on. I mean... HIGH. Mom and I were talking about it and we realized... that was all their MOTHER'S doing. I don't quite get that. I mean... yes. Its an honor for their darling lil girl to be chosen as the Duchess. Dressing her up in the finest gown they can find is great! However, LET THEM BE LIL GIRLS. Holy Hell!
Kids grow up so much faster these days. It doesn't help when their parents are encouraging it. Is it just me? Am I wrong and looking at it in a skewed way or are these parents actually encouraging their 6 and 7 year old daughters to grow up too quickly? Meh... mebbe I'm just bitter because I wasn't allowed to have high heels until I was 13... heh.
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Three Cheers for Shecky!!!
Today... was report card day! Shecky brought home 6 A's and 6 B's!!!! I am SO proud of him! (Could I use more exclamation points? Why, YES! YES! I! COULD! heheh)
He finally made the leap between studying and good grades. He GETS it now! WHOO HOO!!!! He got 3 things out of the prize bag and the promise of the Transformers Movie next week when it hits stores. Grandpa promised him $10.00 for every B and $20.00 for every A... Ummm that would have been $180.00. Needless to say Shecky forgot the amounts promised and Grandpa got away with giving him a cool $20.00. lol.
WTG Kiddo! I'm so freakin' proud of you I could bust!
He finally made the leap between studying and good grades. He GETS it now! WHOO HOO!!!! He got 3 things out of the prize bag and the promise of the Transformers Movie next week when it hits stores. Grandpa promised him $10.00 for every B and $20.00 for every A... Ummm that would have been $180.00. Needless to say Shecky forgot the amounts promised and Grandpa got away with giving him a cool $20.00. lol.
WTG Kiddo! I'm so freakin' proud of you I could bust!
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
Someone PLEASE Explain My Childs Learning Process?
OMG... Shecky is KILLING me. He had a spelling test today. Since Monday was a Holiday they only had one day to learn the words before the test. (Usually they get their spelling words list on Monday.)
Last night we drilled and drilled and DRILLED on the words. Two words, "weighed" and "searched" were giving him brain cramps. Every time I would call one of those two out for him to spell he would groan and whine and bitch and complain cause they were haaaaaaaaaaard. I finally stopped drilling him on them because his frustration level was through the roof.
He came home with his test today... He spelled them right... and MISSED two words he KNEW! WTF?
I was cracking up when I saw it and swatted him playfully on the back of the head and called him a dork. They will retake the test Friday so we'll keep studying the words... ALL OF THEM.
Last night we drilled and drilled and DRILLED on the words. Two words, "weighed" and "searched" were giving him brain cramps. Every time I would call one of those two out for him to spell he would groan and whine and bitch and complain cause they were haaaaaaaaaaard. I finally stopped drilling him on them because his frustration level was through the roof.
He came home with his test today... He spelled them right... and MISSED two words he KNEW! WTF?
I was cracking up when I saw it and swatted him playfully on the back of the head and called him a dork. They will retake the test Friday so we'll keep studying the words... ALL OF THEM.
Friday, August 24, 2007
The Right Stuff... Or... Not?
I have a hard time understanding the trend I'm seeing in parenting.
Granted, I live on a lake. Yes, its a very laid back lifestyle. However, I am noticing that the parents of the children that live here are taking VERY little interest or hand in what their children are doing.
Let me back up a bit. In our VERY small community there are 4 families with children. There will be 9 kids from here going to the same school. They range in age from 5 to 11. We pretty much have K-5 covered. I keep track of Shecky. I know where he is and what he's doing almost all the time. (No one EVER knows what their kids are doing all the time, I'm not naive enough to think that.) He carries a walkie-talkie with him when he's out in the neighborhood and reports in to me if he goes to someones house or goes riding or what have you. I don't allow him to go into the woods or swimming without adult supervision. He still has the freedom of being able to play pretty much anywhere else he'd like. He has a set bedtime, even in the summer. (Yeah I know, I'm not anal about making him stick to it in so far as being ASLEEP but he does have to be in bed.) He has to stop playing outside or with his friends by 7pm. He has to shower and get ready for bed at that point.
The other kids that live here... have NO such restrictions. They go wherever they want. Do whatever they want. By their own admission, their parents don't have a clue what they are up to or where they are a great majority of the time. I actually had a parent tell me yesterday, "They just do their own thing. I usually just say go!" Several of these kids, (all but one or two) aren't in the grade they are supposed to be in. They've either failed a grade or been held back... or both. School isn't a priority in their families. The parents don't put any emphasis on it. The kids have virtually no desire to attend.
The kids are defiant and disrespectful of their parents.
I. Don't. Get. It.
Its not like these women work full time jobs outside the home. They have an opportunity and a RESPONSIBILITY to shape these kids into who they are going to be as adults. Do they not SEE that? Do they just not give a damn?
I've already started a "Reward Bag" for this school year. Shecky points out things all the time that he wants. I buy them up and when he does well in school he will be rewarded with an item from the bag. The stuff ranges from Yugio Cards to Pirates of the Caribbean Figurines to DVD's to PS2 games. Depending on the achievement he'll receive a reward of appropriate value. If he does POORLY in school, gets bad behavior reports, fails tests or God Forbid, gets a D or an F on his report card he'll get penalized. He'll be grounded from SOMETHING depending on how bad the infraction.
When I bought his school clothes I made sure they were dressy-ish. 3 button shirts with and without collars etc. Pants. Shorts and Logo Tee shirts are for playing in, not going to school. Its to help him realize School is different. Its important. Its SPECIAL.
I THINK about these things and when I talk about it to these other parents or when their kids hear about it I just get these blank looks. These, goggle eyed, WTF is she TALKING about looks.
I'm I thinking too hard about these things? Am I being a helicopter mommy? Is it WRONG for me to put the emphasis on this stuff? Should I be more lax? Am I doing all this wrong? I have no clue. I just know the kids in these other families... they choose to hang out here with the rules, with the family atmosphere, with adults that TALK to them and LISTEN to them. They're starving for attention and that really pisses me off.... and wears me out.
Granted, I live on a lake. Yes, its a very laid back lifestyle. However, I am noticing that the parents of the children that live here are taking VERY little interest or hand in what their children are doing.
Let me back up a bit. In our VERY small community there are 4 families with children. There will be 9 kids from here going to the same school. They range in age from 5 to 11. We pretty much have K-5 covered. I keep track of Shecky. I know where he is and what he's doing almost all the time. (No one EVER knows what their kids are doing all the time, I'm not naive enough to think that.) He carries a walkie-talkie with him when he's out in the neighborhood and reports in to me if he goes to someones house or goes riding or what have you. I don't allow him to go into the woods or swimming without adult supervision. He still has the freedom of being able to play pretty much anywhere else he'd like. He has a set bedtime, even in the summer. (Yeah I know, I'm not anal about making him stick to it in so far as being ASLEEP but he does have to be in bed.) He has to stop playing outside or with his friends by 7pm. He has to shower and get ready for bed at that point.
The other kids that live here... have NO such restrictions. They go wherever they want. Do whatever they want. By their own admission, their parents don't have a clue what they are up to or where they are a great majority of the time. I actually had a parent tell me yesterday, "They just do their own thing. I usually just say go!" Several of these kids, (all but one or two) aren't in the grade they are supposed to be in. They've either failed a grade or been held back... or both. School isn't a priority in their families. The parents don't put any emphasis on it. The kids have virtually no desire to attend.
The kids are defiant and disrespectful of their parents.
I. Don't. Get. It.
Its not like these women work full time jobs outside the home. They have an opportunity and a RESPONSIBILITY to shape these kids into who they are going to be as adults. Do they not SEE that? Do they just not give a damn?
I've already started a "Reward Bag" for this school year. Shecky points out things all the time that he wants. I buy them up and when he does well in school he will be rewarded with an item from the bag. The stuff ranges from Yugio Cards to Pirates of the Caribbean Figurines to DVD's to PS2 games. Depending on the achievement he'll receive a reward of appropriate value. If he does POORLY in school, gets bad behavior reports, fails tests or God Forbid, gets a D or an F on his report card he'll get penalized. He'll be grounded from SOMETHING depending on how bad the infraction.
When I bought his school clothes I made sure they were dressy-ish. 3 button shirts with and without collars etc. Pants. Shorts and Logo Tee shirts are for playing in, not going to school. Its to help him realize School is different. Its important. Its SPECIAL.
I THINK about these things and when I talk about it to these other parents or when their kids hear about it I just get these blank looks. These, goggle eyed, WTF is she TALKING about looks.
I'm I thinking too hard about these things? Am I being a helicopter mommy? Is it WRONG for me to put the emphasis on this stuff? Should I be more lax? Am I doing all this wrong? I have no clue. I just know the kids in these other families... they choose to hang out here with the rules, with the family atmosphere, with adults that TALK to them and LISTEN to them. They're starving for attention and that really pisses me off.... and wears me out.
Thursday, August 2, 2007
School Daze, School Daze
I cannot BELIEVE that school starts in a few weeks. This summer has just flown by. I got Shecky registered for school. It was a MUCH different process than last year. It was very casual, one form to fill out. That was it. I was SHOCKED! Last year we filled out a whole reams worth of forms and a lot of it was redundant! Bleh. I got the school supplies list when I registered him and got all the supplies bought and labeled. Shecky was all excited when I told him about it. He made me list off everything I got him. Messenger bag, Pirates of the Caribbean spiral notebook, Crayola Crayons, Crayola Markers, Crayola Map Colors, Pirate Pencils, Fuzzy Pencils, Regular Pencils, Pirate themed erasers, brightly colored erasers, Elmer's Glue, Binder, folders, the list goes on and on and on. He was tickled that I'd gotten some special things for him rather than just the generic plain notebooks and pencils. =I= was tickled that he was so excited.
Later that night Shecky called at almost 10PM. I was like... WTF?!?!?!?! He said "Mom? MOM! Did you remember to get me SCISSORS????" Me: "Yes hon. I got everything on the list. I even got you some neat scissors with like... flames on them and stuff." Shecky: "Oh! Thank GOD! I gave myself a HEART ATTACK thinkin' you didn't get my SCISSORS!" Me: "A Hear... Son... get to bed!"
Oh... Mah... GAH! That child does have his moments. A heart attack... over SCISSORS! I've now heard it all...
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