Rough times at school!

I haven't posted since the kids' first day of school because things have been kind of stressful here. Ethan had a great first day and even said he loved school. Then on the second day, he seemed very distant to me when I tried to talk to him about his day and he wouldn't tell me anything. The only thing he would say was that he was "bored" all day in his class. I started getting concerned after that day and then got hit with a doozy on the third day of school. The minute I picked him up, he started telling me how bored he was in class. And then when I open his folder to check about his day, I saw this horrible thing staring at me. It was a big fat "N" in conduct. The teacher left a note that said he had a lot of trouble paying attention in class and was also caught playing in the hall. Despite the poor conduct grade, Ethan managed to do perfectly on all of his papers. In fact, he mastered the art of counting syllables while Emily was really struggling with that. Emily brought home the same paper, but she had missed a lot of hers. (I have since worked with Emily on this and she now understands it.) To say that I was a bit confused by seeing his wonderful school work and then seeing that horrible conduct grade, well "confused" would be an understatement.

I made it VERY clear to Ethan how unacceptable a conduct grade like that was. He lost his video game and tv watching privileges for the night. I also made him write an apology letter to his teacher. Later in the evening, after I had a chance to cool down a bit, Ethan and I had a very good talk about how I was very happy with his school work and that it made me proud to see it. And we also went over some techniques he might be able to use to keep himself from "being bored". I also sent a letter to his teacher because I wanted to know her take on this. We deal with a lot of issues at home regarding his lack of attention and so seeing this happen so soon in school made me very concerned.

I did get a reply back from her this evening and she filled me in on what she has done to reduce the number of distractions that Ethan has. We have also vowed to work together to help Ethan and make sure that he gets what he needs. He did end up having a great day at school today and I was so happy and relieved to see this. He earned his screen time back (video games and tv). And we even went outside this evening and let the kids drive their jeeps all around the front yard and driveway. This is a huge deal for the kids because they don't get to do it often. They usually just have the back yard to drive around in. Ethan was extremely happy about getting to take the Power Wheels out front.

And on top of dealing with these issues with Ethan, I could tell when I picked the kids up from school yesterday that Emily had a headache. I could see it in her eyes. She said that she got it before lunch and still had it even after lunch. I asked her if she told her teacher, but she said that she didn't because she didn't know if her teacher was aware of her headaches. This just made me sad. I assured her that her teacher knew about them and she could tell her when she had one. Emily ended up laying in her bed yesterday evening for a while because her head was still hurting her. I'm sure that it was mostly due to the weather system that we had going on. And then, however, she told me today that she ended up going to the nurse because she had another headache. She said that she got to lay down for a little bit and that helped some. I just hate that she is having them at all.

This week has definitely been an eventful one. Personally, I'm glad that the week is almost over. I'm ready to start brand new next week. :)