K started middle school this year. It’s amazing how much he’s learned in just 1 week and I’m not talking about lessons from books but more importantly, from life itself.
DAY 1 – Thursday, 9/8/2011
IT’S OK TO BE NERVOUS. He was so nervous on his first day of school. Who can blame him? Middle school is a big change from elementary school. Of course his stomach felt bad in the morning but he was better once I told him it was his nerves and that all was going good. And it was.
DAY 2 – Friday, 9/9/2011
DON’T BE LATE. Not even by a minute. On the second day of school, Friday, his brother was dragging his feet at home and we left 5 minutes later than planned. Well, that didn’t bode well for K. School starts at 8 promptly and that’s when he finally made it up to his 5th floor homeroom. He was inside the classroom at 8 but his teacher didn’t look up at the clock at 8:01 and marked him late. Poor kid. Hates having anything negative put on him – especially when it’s his brother’s fault. Only day 2 of school and he already got a lateness recorded.
DAY 3 – Monday, 9/12/2011
PREPARE. On the way to school on Monday, he realized he left his wallet and cell phone at home. No time to go back since he already knew how strict his homeroom teacher was about being prompt. Oh well, no money and no phone. Boy was he glad that A had gotten a new cellphone over the weekend. At least they had that covered.
GO THE WAY YOU KNOW. That is until you learn alternate routes. K now walks to school with his friend and classmate from CPE II, A. It’s wonderful and freeing for both boys that they are being entrusted to walk to school by themselves. Honestly, for us parents, we wait with bated breath to see them at the end of the day.
On Monday, things were not going smoothly in the morning. We were already running 5 minutes late because Z was again being a slug and K had to pull together school supplies for the day from the bags in the car I had been too lazy to bring up to the apartment. It was a little frantic and so I agreed to drive K and A part of the way to school. So after a few blocks I pull over and told them to get out and start walking. Well, their school is west of where we were but A (the navigator for now since he knows the route and neighborhood) starts going east. I kind of panicked and shouted out the window that they were going the wrong way. A tells me that he knows the way which happens to be only 1 route and that’s why they were headed east. Well, I sat there watching them in my rear view mirror. Being the overprotective mom, I followed them. Yeah, I followed them in my car for the 6 blocks it took them to get to school. I just needed to make myself feel better. The most hysterical part was that just when I was about to leave them alone, the car behind me honks (because I was going so slowly) and the boys catch me.
PAY ATTENTION TO THE LEADER. As they were approaching a corner, A started to turn right but K was paying no mind. Little A – who’s about 4 inches shorter and 50 pounds lighter – reaches out to grab his friend and swing him around the corner. K said later that he thought they were going straight and A didn’t give him a heads up about where they were going.
PAY ATTENTION TO THE RULES. There are 2 things about clothes he always hated. First, he HATES collars. It was bad news for him when the school uniform code required either a short/long sleeve polo or button down shirt. Second, he NEVER EVER tucks in his shirt. Oh well, too bad. School dress code calls for shirts to be tucked in. For the next 7 years, he’ll have to deal with 2 of the things he hated most about clothes.
After being reminded of the school dress code on the first day of school that shirts had to be tucked in, K did this just before he walked into the building. On Monday, his homeroom teacher noticed his shirt was not completely tucked in and told him to step out of the room and fix his shirt and then return to the classroom. He complied but upon returning to the classroom he had to stand in line behind students who was being marked late for coming in that 1 or more minutes late to class. Lucky for him, he didn’t get marked late because technically he was not properly prepared for school and could have been marked late. Let’s say that since then, he tucks his shirt in at home before he leaves so he doesn’t have to worry about following the school dress code.
WATCH WHERE YOU’RE GOING. Monday night conversation about dinner.
K: Mommy, can I have soup for dinner?
Me: Why?
K: Because my mouth hurts.
Me: Why?
K: Because I ran into a wall.
Me: How?
K: I was walking backwards talking to a friend and I turned around and
hit my face on the wall.
Me: hysterically laughing
DAY 4 – Tuesday, 9/13/2011
STAND UP TO BULLIES but don’t be cruel. He stood up to a student who was harassing him or another student – don’t remember which and that’s not the point of this anecdote. It’s what he said to this student that makes me both proud and ashamed of him. He stood up to the bully – which is good. It’s what he said that causes me shame. The boy was overweight and K pointed out that he had man-boobs. Yes, hysterical but too cruel for me. I told him that he had crossed the line. Yes, the boy needed to be put down but not embarrassed. He had crossed a fine line in standing up to the bully and needed to be more thoughtful and mature when encountered with the same situation. I’m sure the occasion will rise up again and he will do much better.
DAY 5 – Wednesday, 9/14/2011
RUN AWAY WHEN FACED WITH DANGER. On the way to school, a big(probably a teenager) kid came up to them and asked them if they wanted crack. Smartly, they ran. They say they ran for 5 blocks but I don’t think it was 5 blocks but at that point even 1 block would feel like 5. Good move fellas. Run away from trouble.
LISTEN TO YOUR MOTHER. Around 4:30 – after what seemed a reasonable amount of time to unwind from the school day – I suggested he start homework. No response. Around 5, I started digging around his backpack to see what was in there. Concerned, I again suggested he start homework.
K: I’ll do it at 6:30, after dinner.
Me: Really? Dinner isn’t being scheduled around you. You figure out
your homework around when I make dinner.
Well, we can safely guess he didn’t start homework until after 7. He started and then around 8 checked his class schedule for the next day to discover that the Spanish homework he thought he could put off was due the next day. Let’s say, he went into panic mode. When I left to make a call, he was stressing out over how much Spanish homework there was to do. When I returned at 10, I was glad to see him passed out in bed.
The next day he tells me about his bath – which was the last thing he did before going to sleep. As he sat/laid down in the tub, he realized he was slipping (from falling asleep). In other words, he almost drowned. A new rule has been implemented – K is not allowed to take baths on school nights. And we are keeping a closer eye on him as he adjusts to a new rhythm in life.
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