Update on past posts

I thought I'd give an update on a few of my past posts:

About yesterday... My 7 year old came home from school perfectly fine! When I picked him up, he was walking down the street with his friends and waved goodbye. He jumped in the car.

"Hi! How was your day?"

"Hi mom! Good."

He questioned if big brother was home. I told him yes and he just said, "I knew it!". That was all. Then he ran off to his friends house to play when we got home. I'm really glad I sent him yesterday. This morning his brother felt better and went to school, but he still tried to tell me that he was going to throw up. When he walked out the door he forgot all about throwing up and was fine.

About my new budget... It's going pretty well. Considering it's Christmas shopping time, I can't worry as much this month because I have to buy presents. But the grocery shopping, wow! I took my calculator with me to the grocery store for the past two weeks and saved a TON of money! Usually my goal is to spend $150/week for my family of 6, but when I actually added up what I spent it was closer to $200! That's $800/month! For the last two weeks I spent only $100. I think that's pretty good. If I keep it up that will be a savings of $400/month. What do others spend on their groceries?

About potty training... My 3 year old is not doing very well at staying dry at night. By the time I go up to bed (which has been pretty late because I'm always on the computer), she's usually already wet. I guess waking her to go has helped, but she still has a way to go.

About my 3 year old getting into everything lately... She all of a sudden is SO much better! I'm relieved. She has been going right to sleep at night, without getting out of bed and going into big sister's room and ruining her stuff. She hasn't sprayed her hair with perfume. She hasn't painted her nails. She hasn't broken her brother's Nintendo DS. Life is good.

Just got to work on 7 year old not hating school, and keeping 3 year old dry at night.

"Had a Bad Day"

As I've written about before, my 7 year old just HATES school. This morning my 11 year old felt sick and I told him he could stay home. Well, suddenly 7 year old gets very upset. Why does he get to stay home? Then he has every excuse why HE should stay home, too.

"Do you know what will happen if I let you stay home from school too many times? They'll put me in jail!"

"That's dumb."

I very calmly told him he had to go to school. He started crying. I ran upstairs to take my shower. He followed me up the stairs.

"I have a fever! Can you at least take my temperature?"

I felt his head.

"You don't have a fever. Go brush your teeth."

Boo Hoo!!!

Out of all 4 of my kids, he hates school the most, always has. My 14 year old loves it. She didn't want to miss another day being sick. My 11 year old can take it or leave it. He loves his bus ride, a few of his teachers, and getting all A's. Even my 3 year old likes to play school all the time. She picks out her book bag in every store we're at. Seven year old - just plain HATES it. I really feel sorry for him. I know I wouldn't want to have to go to a job every day that I hated.

Every morning, I try to be as cheerful as I can. I wake him up early enough, so he's not rushed and has a little time for himself. I pick out clothes that are his favorites - comfy sweatpants and a hoodie. I make him hot cocoa with his breakfast. I try not to ever say the words, "Hurry up!". I cheerfully tell him to have a good day as he gets out of the car. All these things really help. But today, nothing was helping, knowing that his favorite big brother was home.

"What if I have a cough?"

"Then you'll just be coughing in school."

"What if I get diarrhea?"

"You won't!"

I had to put his shoes on myself. I had to zip his jacket. He just stood there sobbing. The whole way to school he just sobbed. As we pulled up to the doors he wiped his tears and blew his nose.

"You just want him to stay home with you so you can play games with him all day!"

"Don't be ridiculous. Besides, I'm going to take him to school today when he feels a little better."

"He better be at school when I get home or I'm going to be mad."

Or he's going to be mad? Is that me talking? I need to watch my words better! I hate dropping him off at school like this. I wanted to keep him home because I felt so bad for him, but what would that teach him? Poor thing.

When I got back home, I emailed his teacher and explained to her about why he looked the way he did today. She messaged me back and told me they had a nice calm day planned: watching Frosty the Snowman in the morning (he likes that, good) and listening to Christmas music in the afternoon. Christmas music? He hates music about as much as he hates school! He covers his ears and shuts his eyes sometimes. Maybe I should have kept him home!

I guess he's going to be "mad" anyway when he gets home. Big brother never made it to school.

Dick and Jane

Seven year old son hates school. He's in 1st grade and already hates it. He always did. I tried to send him to preschool when he was three, and he ran screaming out of the classroom, down the hallway, and out the door! I didn't send him back to preschool until he was 5 (a different one). He has a summer birthday and most of the school districts around us have moved back the age you have to be to go to kindergarten (age 5 by May 1st) , so it wasn't a hard decision to hold him back. He did fine and made lots of friends, but his reading skills were lacking a little. He didn't want anything to do with sitting down and working with me on his reading, but I decided I should do something over the summer before he entered 1st grade.

I went to the library and looked for easy readers that were very basic. There were almost none. Most of the easy readers were for children who were already reading, not just starting to learn to read. Then I discovered Dick and Jane. There are new publications of all the old Dick and Jane books. Our library has books from 1-12. Most people know how the first book starts, "Look."They are so simple and gradually add new words to the story and are repeated over and over. Each word then becomes a new sight word (which is how you read when you're older). Each book builds from the last. You can practically do all 12 books in one night and learn to read! After only the first book he was so proud of himself. He showed everyone how he could read. Now our nightly ritual is first he reads to me, then I read a book to him. He loves it! On the nights that I can't read to him, I hear him in his room reading to himself. I'm so proud of him.

When I went to parent teacher conferences this year his teacher told me he's right where he should be for 1st grade. She has no idea how much he learned from those Dick and Jane books over the summer. I even recommended them to a friend of mine who said her son isn't reading very well. I don't know why they don't use them in schools anymore. They're great! My son still hates school, all the rules, no talking, sit still, homework, but at least he doesn't hate it anymore because he's struggling at reading!