Second Grade Consequences

Second grade has been a bit, shall we say, challenging for the eldest Wells sibling. Spencer has had a rough go of it. I think the challenge of learning how to read (Lord give me patience) as well as having his best buddy in his class this year, has made our student a tad rebellious. On the other hand, it could just be his genetics. His father and I certainly had our "challenging moments" in school. I once got a swat for starting a water fight in the girls bathroom, but that's a different story.

We've talked to Spencer about his behavior and our expectations, we've grounded him from all things fun. Made him write sentences, sit at the kitchen table while we all had an obnoxiously fun time in the living room... etc, etc. He straightened up for several months, but since returning from the holiday break, he's apparently been making some more poor choices.

Today, his sweet teacher had enough. She sent me an e-mail explaining some of those poor choices: hard time controlling his talking, blurting out in class, laughing with his buddy, not listening. The list is pretty lengthy. So of course, I called Matthew in a tizzy - "Babe, what are we doing wrong, why is he acting this way, what are we going to do nowwwww?" My dear, sweet, wonderful, understanding and level headed husband talked me off a ledge and we made a plan. We were going to read the teacher's letter to Spencer, get Spencer's side of the story, tell him once again how disappointed we were over his behavior and then hand out his punishment.

So we followed through with the plan until the very end when we had to abort the mission. It went a little something like this:

I read the letter out loud.
Spencer listened.
We asked him to explain his poor choices.
He explained, through his tears.
I teared up.
Matthew looked at me with laser beams.
I dried up my tears.
We told Spencer that while we love him VERY much, we were disappointed in his choices and that he needed to make better ones. We were going to help him remember to make better choices by:

A) Taking away his Leap Pad and Nintendo DS
B) Make him sit at the table after school until dinner time
C) Do homework - provided by us - every night, even on the weekend
D) Write sentences

After explaining all the consequences, Matthew told Spencer that he also owed his teacher an apology. He said this in a really stern, deep voice that forced me to look away. I did not want to smile or giggle in front of little man. The last thing before we aborted the mission was when Matthew said: "Now... sit there, get your pen and paper and 'GET TO STE... (cleared his throat) GET TO WRITING."

I literally had to get up out of the chair, and walk down the hall. Matthew was right behind me. We closed our bedroom door and laughed into our pillows for at least three minutes before we could talk.

Does anyone remember the MARTIN show? Marrrr-tinnn Lawrence. One of Martin's best lines was, "Now... get to steppin'." That's what got us, an old Martin reference.

We are such good parents.

Here's to a better day in second grade tomorrow.