The bad part first...
He will get bad grades. What the heck is going on in 3rd grade??!! I've heard plenty of other moms say that every other grade (falling on the uneven ones) are tough. I hear reasons like new things are introduced in those years while the even years are kind of review years, the teachers start expecting more maturity from the kids as far as working on their own goes, hormones... Well, apparently it was all true. I just didn't believe it. Here is how I remember 3rd grade-and I am not exaggerating- IT. WAS. MY. FAVORITE.
except for having to learn to write cursive-I could never get my letters to slant correctly and so I got bad grades in penmanship all year. But I was friends with a group of about 5 girls and it seems like every weekend we took turns going to each other's houses for a slumber party. Lots of memories. Well, for the Boy, I have signed 6 Fs to date, and we just hit the 9 week mark (4 of them in Math-Melissa and Nicole, I blame you for this). Even Morgan is having "Morgan" trouble, which means she is bringing home Cs. She has always been a straight A student. Michael sent this text to me one night, "I hate 3rd grade." Pretty much sums up the classwork part of it anyway.
Right now I am thanking God everyday for his teacher. She is so...NOT LIKE THE ONE FROM LAST YEAR. You know, she actually gives a crap about TEACHING. After Jacob had gone the 3rd time without bringing home what he needed to complete homework (book, study guide, etc) and the 4th F, I sent her an "I am at my wit's end" email (literally) and she called me right away. We set up a meeting where she had come up with this chart to encourage him to do what he is supposed to do. Which, in my pre-motherhood years, I would have frowned upon fiercely. But I am here to tell you, if I have learned anything about little boys, it is that they respond better to rewards for good stuff than punishment for bad stuff.
The way it works:
She broke up the day into 5 time segments. He has the opportunity to earn points during each segment based on appropriate behavior that she, Jon, Jacob and I came up with. That's right-AND JACOB. She wanted him there in the meeting so he wouldn't feel like we were attacking him, but rather helping. So, if he gets a certain amount of points during the day, he gets to pick a reward at the bottom of the page. I keep these all week, and have a sort of sister system going on at home where he earns XBox time for the weekend. That is what he is most obsessed with (even more so than football), so now he literally starts off the week with NO time for the weekend. He has to earn it by getting his points from the class time AND bringing home the appropriate homework material. She even copy and pasted XBox controllers on the chart. What.
Last week was our first full week with it. He earned enough points on 3 of the days (it was only a 4 day week). This got him a reward from the list on this sheet those 3 days, but only 3 hours of XBox time for the weekend. If he makes the points for each day AND brings home homework stuff, he gets 1 hour of XBox time. AND if he has an hour for each day of the school week by the weekend, he gets to DOUBLE the hours.
So, I also asked the school if they had an extra set of books I could "rent" for the year. They said yes!! I was so happy you would have thought they just gave him a free pass for the year. I had decided I needed to get Jacob to bring books home so we could study a little extra throughout the week, but who was I kidding? He wasn't remembering to bring them home when he had teacher assigned homework, much less for EXTRA work. If the school had said no, I had already researched the prices on Amazon...
He will eat. A LOT. THE BOY IS ALWAYS HUNGRY. And he always has been, but it was much more easily (and cheaply) satisfied. But now, the boy eats full meals constantly. I went to Costco and bought these huge bags of hamburger patties and chicken breasts AS SNACKS. I mean, he will eat one of these after school. Not for dinner, but AS AN AFTER SCHOOL SNACK. I used to could give him some crackers, maybe with an apple. But he will scarf that down and ask for more. I couldn't just have him eating crackers constantly, obviously his body is needed more filling foods.
Time will become a major issue. An egg timer is a mom of a boy's best friend. Period. I have always been a big fan. But this year it is getting used even more because the boy will AR-GUE. ABOUT. EVERYTHING. And it's always, "5 more minutes...." So I just set the timer. Whether it's timed for minutes left to watch tv before he gets ready for school, bed, or football, or I use it with the XBox timing, it is getting used daily right now.
He will become a major slob. And I don't mean just that he leaves toys all over the place. I mean dirty clothes and trash. I saw something sticking out from the ottoman the other day and found all of this. I think it is about 5 pairs (5!) of socks, candy wrappers, a used bandaid, and food.
Ok, for the good part...
The boy loves some clothes and shoes. He literally went from wanting all sport-related clothing (jerseys, Under Armor brand) to telling me one morning, "I want to start wearing church clothes to school (we don't get real dressed up-the Catholic in me coming out ;) because that is how Daniel and Miles dress." So off to Once Upon a Child (a consignment store) and Goodwill we went.
This could actually be viewed as a bad thing, but I guess since I love clothes and shoes, I think it is adorable. Plus his Grammy trained him from early on to love some Goodwill, so I am not spending too much (so far). This entire outfit came from Goodwill, shoes and all, and cost $11 total. Whoop whoop.
He will LOVE shoes. Thankfully, it is tennis shoes he loves. And these were actually my fault. I saw them at Kohl's one day (curses) and had to have them. For him, that is... He wore them/carried them room to room for the first 24 hours he had them. Here they are on the hockey table in his room when I FORCED him to take them off to sleep...
And here they are the next morning when he woke up and came downstairs.
He still loves a random stick (yes that is a LOT of other random crap in my car). This stick was declared a "good walking stick." Because we do a lot of stick-aided-walking around here.
He still loves to jump. This is before school. But it could have easily been after school, before or after football, before or after church...you get the picture. If we've been gone for a while and I tell him I want him to do something when we get home, he will say, "PLEASE let me jump on the trampoline for a few minutes first..." So I do ;)
Bad part alert*** If I try to go out there with him he asks me, nicely, to go back in because this is his "private time." What.
He still LOVES to read with me. So that makes up for it. If for some reason we are getting into bed late, he will anxiously ask, "we're still going to read, right??"
The bottom book, Crash, was about a bully football player who came around in the end. He liked it but said, "it was too lessony." So if that NFL career doesn't pan out, he can obviously land a job as a book critic.
We just started the one on top. It is a mystery and it is starting out super cute. The author made a big deal about telling the reader the names and places in the book have been changed, so the reader can even "change them to something else" if we want. So of course Jacob wanted to. I had to get a pen and write down Jacob's names to help us remember.
Also, never go to bed without your trusting Nerf pistol.
Sorry for all the CAPITOLS. I just read over this and realized I am apparently FIRED UP about this post ;)
