The First Kid Goes To School – Tomorrow, the Second Born Registers for Kindergarten
Yes, when my first born was starting Kindergarten I was skeered (that’s hillbilly for Oh my, what if he gets in trouble or isn’t very smart). But, indeed, he does talk too much sometimes but has maintained straight A’s, nothing below a 98 that I can find for that matter.
My husband is a genius. I’m sure you’ve heard that more times than you care to but he isn’t called Boy Genius on my other blog no reason. As a matter of fact, the folks at the Disney conference got a taste of his genius when the bus driver taking us to one of the events was asking riddles over the loud speaker and he never once fooled Boy Genius. Simple stuff really, if you have your head in that same space (and my head is never in the space with his). Although there were plenty of riddles, the first one is the one that sticks out in my mind and caused conversation all over the bus. What can you put in a box to make it lighter? A hole!
Yea, duh!
With that, we don’t call Ditto Boy that for no reason either. Of course, he didn’t get the riddles but he takes in way more information than your average tourist and certainly more than your average 7-year-old tourist.
Either way, he has only been in trouble for talking and it hasn’t been near as difficult this year as it was last. But, his teacher last year did a great job of helping him learn when it is appropriate to chatter and when it isn’t. The best!
My parents never made a big deal about my grades until I was absolutely old enough to have some major input into whether I studied or did homework. As it is right now, if we have a lot going on one night in particular, we send a note and he is isn’t punished for not getting his work done. And, considering that he is well above level right now, that helps.
But, I mentioned the straight A’s and I want to clarify that my own father never mentioned that only straight A’s were acceptable. Even when I was in high school and it was obvious that I was making more B’s than A’s because my social schedule was a bit cluttered, he never made a big deal out of anything but “do your best!”.
And, my husband made good grades simply because…well yea, he is a genius.
And the two of us haven’t discussed how we would handle grades and for now, I really don’t see it necessary. But, that doesn’t mean that my son is immune to the chatter of other kids. Other parents just don’t think like we do. So, although we’ve never made much of a big deal over straight A’s (although we do celebrate a good grade on a particular test now and again), his classmates who haven’t been on the A Honor Roll all year are quick to jump in and mention his intelligence and his grades. Other parents talk about it. It’s almost like people think we beat him to make sure he gets good grades. Honestly, I really hope it never comes to that.
I can’t speak for my husband but my own grades were dictated by the drive within me. Not something my parents pushed on me. I didn’t make anything but straight A’s til I started high school. And, wow! That was a major change. But, I still made mostly A’s with an occasional B thrown in for good measure. By the time I was old enough to drive, I was making about a 50/50 split between A’s and B’s. Boys were obviously on my mind too.
And then…….I learned to drive. I was playing sports, I was participating in every extra-curricular activity known to man-kind and by this time, there were more B’s than A’s. And finally, the last grading period of high school, my senior year, a C! The nerve!
Nothing important about that, just interesting to me in hindsight how obvious my lifestyle was just by looking at my report card.
Now, back to my first born. I still had that fear that I was going to be going to school every day with my duct tape to close his mouth and some rope to tie him to his chair. Nope, hasn’t happened yet! What a great surprise that has been!
So, what does next year bring? My happy go lucky first born and my stubborn as a mule second born….this could be interesting!
