Things my kid says/does I can only assume are part of second grade culture this year....
* The happy birthday cha-cha-cha thing. Actually, this has persisted since Kindergarten and across two different schools... must be an elementary school thing.
* The word "Awkward". Everything is "awkward" these days.
* Saying the punctuation mark at the end of a sentence. For example, "Can we go to the pool, question mark?" Or.... "School was boring today, period." Or... "I'm going outside, exclamation point!"
* "Jinx, you owe me a soda." When I was in school, it was "You owe me a Coke". They've gone generic now.... ?
Showing posts with label Benjamin second grade. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Benjamin second grade. Show all posts
Saturday, June 02, 2012
Tuesday, May 01, 2012
Mr. Literal...
So Ben has this question on his math homework (that he forgot to do last night) where he is supposed to answer three questions about a calendar page, one of which is to make up something about the starred date, August 14th.
The conversation went like this.
Ben: "What do they mean, 'name the starred date?'"
Me: "It means just make something up... like August 14th is my cat's birthday."
Ben: "No... our cat's birthday is in September."
Me: "Invent something... like August 14th is my aunt and uncle's wedding anniversary."
Ben: "No... that's August 31st."
Me: "It's my brother's birthday?"
Ben: "That's the 25th."
Me: "BEN! JUST. MAKE. IT. UP!"
Ben: "I can't!!!" (tears tears tears)
Me: (head vs. wall... face vs. palm)
Do you know what he ended up writing?
"August 14th is just a normal day."
The conversation went like this.
Ben: "What do they mean, 'name the starred date?'"
Me: "It means just make something up... like August 14th is my cat's birthday."
Ben: "No... our cat's birthday is in September."
Me: "Invent something... like August 14th is my aunt and uncle's wedding anniversary."
Ben: "No... that's August 31st."
Me: "It's my brother's birthday?"
Ben: "That's the 25th."
Me: "BEN! JUST. MAKE. IT. UP!"
Ben: "I can't!!!" (tears tears tears)
Me: (head vs. wall... face vs. palm)
Do you know what he ended up writing?
"August 14th is just a normal day."
Friday, January 20, 2012
Guidance, We Need Guidance....
Ugh. Ben has himself all worked into a tizz lately. This is completely my fault as these are 100% my genes at work, for sure.
So first there was this weird stomach pain he was having all week and part of last week. No sickness... no fever... just "my stomach hurts". It was concerning enough that I emailed his teacher after I sent him to school yesterday and the day before to ask her to check in on him and report back. He was always fine when she asked him. I did take him to the pediatrician yesterday just to make sure there was nothing nefarious going on... the doctor said there was a possibility maybe it was a really mild stomach bug working its way through and to give it a couple more days.
Okay, so MAYBE a stomach bug of some kind. But my guess?
Anxiety. Why? you ask?
Well, first and foremost, he's my kid. SO my kid...
But anyway, yesterday, when we got to the drop off zone at the school, Ben's lower lip started to tremble like he was trying to hold it together. I closed the door and continued around the loop again two more times to give him time to tell me what was going on. He BURST into tears and out it all came... "Markus won't stop making fun of me. He won't stop saying I'm the smallest kid in the class. He calls me a midget and says I am a bug and he will squash me. He says he can beat me at everything. I asked him to stop but he won't. He does it every single day."
(sigh)
I managed to help him get himself under control by promising to email the teacher about it. (he actually begged me to, which I thought was a pretty desperate sign, honestly)
So I came home and sent off a note to Ms M. to let her know what Ben had said and how upset he was. I knew she'd take it seriously, although I did issue a caveat that sometimes Ben can be REALLY sensitive and can take something that is even good-natured teasing sort of personally. (umm... yeah... those would be my genes at work right there) In this case, since I KNOW the kid in question and Ben has had issues with him before, years ago, in preschool, I can pretty much assume it wasn't good-natured... but at any rate, I thought I should let the teacher sort it all out and not go full throttle on the other kid right off the bat.
She wrote back relatively quickly and said she was surprised about this particular child taking part in something like this, but that she would address it. She talked to him and he is supposed to apologize to Ben today. She also said she was afraid that maybe she made it worse inadvertently by getting Ben and another child smaller chairs recently so they could sit at heir desks more comfortably. (I had to giggle a little at this thought, by the way.... poor Ben... ;)
At any rate, after her reply, I wrote back that I thought maybe he would benefit from talking to the guidance counselor a little... he is SUCH a sensitive kid and becoming increasingly upset/self conscious about this size issue.... seeing as how it's NOT going anywhere for now, I'm hoping maybe she can give him some coping tactics. It REALLY really seems to bother him... and now to the point where anticipating teasing from other kids is actually making his stomach hurt. (sigh) He also tends to store all of this anxiety up and let it loose all at once (like he did on me yesterday morning), so I'm hoping she can help him with that some too....
Anyway... we'll see. Poor buddy! :( He was tearful even this morning when I dropped him off. I hate sending him to school knowing he's upset. :(
So first there was this weird stomach pain he was having all week and part of last week. No sickness... no fever... just "my stomach hurts". It was concerning enough that I emailed his teacher after I sent him to school yesterday and the day before to ask her to check in on him and report back. He was always fine when she asked him. I did take him to the pediatrician yesterday just to make sure there was nothing nefarious going on... the doctor said there was a possibility maybe it was a really mild stomach bug working its way through and to give it a couple more days.
Okay, so MAYBE a stomach bug of some kind. But my guess?
Anxiety. Why? you ask?
Well, first and foremost, he's my kid. SO my kid...
But anyway, yesterday, when we got to the drop off zone at the school, Ben's lower lip started to tremble like he was trying to hold it together. I closed the door and continued around the loop again two more times to give him time to tell me what was going on. He BURST into tears and out it all came... "Markus won't stop making fun of me. He won't stop saying I'm the smallest kid in the class. He calls me a midget and says I am a bug and he will squash me. He says he can beat me at everything. I asked him to stop but he won't. He does it every single day."
(sigh)
I managed to help him get himself under control by promising to email the teacher about it. (he actually begged me to, which I thought was a pretty desperate sign, honestly)
So I came home and sent off a note to Ms M. to let her know what Ben had said and how upset he was. I knew she'd take it seriously, although I did issue a caveat that sometimes Ben can be REALLY sensitive and can take something that is even good-natured teasing sort of personally. (umm... yeah... those would be my genes at work right there) In this case, since I KNOW the kid in question and Ben has had issues with him before, years ago, in preschool, I can pretty much assume it wasn't good-natured... but at any rate, I thought I should let the teacher sort it all out and not go full throttle on the other kid right off the bat.
She wrote back relatively quickly and said she was surprised about this particular child taking part in something like this, but that she would address it. She talked to him and he is supposed to apologize to Ben today. She also said she was afraid that maybe she made it worse inadvertently by getting Ben and another child smaller chairs recently so they could sit at heir desks more comfortably. (I had to giggle a little at this thought, by the way.... poor Ben... ;)
At any rate, after her reply, I wrote back that I thought maybe he would benefit from talking to the guidance counselor a little... he is SUCH a sensitive kid and becoming increasingly upset/self conscious about this size issue.... seeing as how it's NOT going anywhere for now, I'm hoping maybe she can give him some coping tactics. It REALLY really seems to bother him... and now to the point where anticipating teasing from other kids is actually making his stomach hurt. (sigh) He also tends to store all of this anxiety up and let it loose all at once (like he did on me yesterday morning), so I'm hoping she can help him with that some too....
Anyway... we'll see. Poor buddy! :( He was tearful even this morning when I dropped him off. I hate sending him to school knowing he's upset. :(