7th Grade Walk Through

Tonight we went to the 7th grade Meet the Teacher night for Tyler. Man we're starting to feel old! It is crazy thinking that John and I have a 7th grader, but at least we don't have to deal with Jr. High. Our school is Kindergarten through 8th grade, so I will be able to have all the kids at one school for a couple more years. I dread the day I have to start driving to multiple schools every day.

Anyway, for the first 30 minutes it was a walk through in the cafeteria where we just went to different stations to talk to people about P.E. uniforms and electives and stuff. It is a little weird since they are still part of the elementary school. The kids take an elective that exposes them to a bunch of different things for the first semester, instead of picking a particular one, unless there is a specific one they want to be in like art or band. I was SO happy after talking to the band teacher! Last year, when we moved here, I had the kids ask about band and they said they were told that it was too late because they hadn't started in band from the beginning. I thought how unfair that was, because this is the first school they have gone to that offered band as part of the curriculum and not an after school activity that you have to pay for. Fortunately, after talking to Mr. O, I found out that is not the case. It will be harder for them, since Austin, Hailey and Tyler are in 5th, 6th, and 7th grade, but he said if they really want to do it and are willing to put in the effort, he is more than glad to work with them and do whatever it takes to help them to get caught up. Thank goodness Brooklyn and Camren will be able to go straight into band next year without being behind! So John and I are going to figure out what will happen about that. We have to rent instruments, and of course none of them want to play the same thing, but at least your rental fees build equity toward the purchase of a nice instrument, instead of them being a waste every month. I told Tyler he had until the end of the week to decide if he wants to do band or not. It will be hard and require a lot of dedication from him to practice and get caught up with everyone else, but I think he could do it if he wants to. I figured I would let him think about it for a couple days because it is a big commitment, and I am not going to enroll him in it just so he can decide he doesn't want to do it after a few weeks.

The last hour we rotated through the 4 core teacher's classes: Math, History, Language Arts, and Science. All the 7th graders have the same 4 teachers, and they just rotate throughout the day. It was nice to meet teachers, and hear their teaching philosophies and plans for the year. I think Tyler is in for a rude awakening when it comes to their discipline system, but I think it will be really good for him. Instead of each class disciplining individually, they all stay in contact throughout the day and the discipline is cumulative. That means you might get a warning in 1st period, a written warning in 2nd period, and if you don't behave in your next class it could land you in detention. He has always had a major behavior problem at school (bothering other students, touching/taking their stuff, refusing to do work, etc) that I think this will be really good for him.

We also found out how much more strict they are about class/home work. After hearing from the 4 teachers, John and I told him he better really buckle down and take his work more seriously or he is going to end up failing. They have homework every night, Monday through Friday (Something I had told him before, but I don't think he believed me. haha), and you're expected to have your homework out and ready to turn in and if you don't, you get a zero. That's it. I am SO glad, I can't even tell you! He is famous for lying about having homework, or "forgetting it" or whatever, so I think that should put an end to that real quick, once he realizes his teachers aren't going to give him second chances and extensions like he has managed to get most of the time in the past. Also, the teachers each have a class website where I can not only look up his exact homework every night, but I can see every grade for every assignment he does. I think things are looking up for this year already! Ha!

Scorpions Suck

Last night Brooklyn got stung by a scorpion. It was so sad. It was on the floor in the hallway upstairs (and I don't know how it got there) and she thought it was one of her brothers' plastic toys and picked it up. At first when I heard her screaming I just thought she was being dramatic and trying to get attention, until it turned into "hurt" wailing. I told John to come deal with the scorpion (who had been flung back to the floor) while I took care of Brooklyn. There isn't really anything that you can do for the pain, but I put a wet compress on it and put her hand above her heart like John told me. He called Poison Control, and they said the same thing and said they would call back every hour for the next 3 hours to check for warning symptoms like drooling, rapid eye movement, or difficulty swallowing.

John gave her a chocolate klondike bar, and she said it didn't make her finger feel better, but it did make her feel better. I gave her some children's pain reliever, and then she got to stay up with me for a few hours watching tv and visiting so I could keep an eye on her. The pain wasn't just in her finger, it affected her whole hand and went up her arm all the way to her armpit. Apparently that is normal, but it was sad that I couldn't do anything that would make the pain go away, other than try and distract her. Around 10:30, once I felt sure she was going to be ok, I went ahead and let her go to bed and told her she could come and get in bed with me in the morning.

Today she has been doing better. She said that her finger still hurts, but it's not hurting her entire arm like it was last night. She was still able to play outside this morning, until she fell, off her scooter and scraped her leg. Poor girl. Now she is just hanging out inside, so that maybe she can make it through the rest of the day without hurting herself again.