Lil' brother's school career, thus far...

Lil’ brother’s school career, thus far…

The Prologue: Ms N- the kindergarten teacher- wrote 22 notes home throughout the course of the year about lil’ brother’s behavior. Here are just 3 events that Mr B and I nearly didn’t recover from:

1. [lil’ brother] used his scissors inappropriately by repeatedly chopping them in his friends’ faces. He has been moved from the Polar Bear table to the Grizzly table. Please discuss this with him.
2. [lil’ brother] pushed his friend A- down in gym today, laid on top of him, and choked him-all because A- beat him in a race across the gym.
3. During circle time, [lil’ brother] put his hand under his shirt and into his armpit to make rude noises that distracted the other children from hearing the story and then they all began to imitate his disruptive behavior.

I can assure you-none of these events were funny at the time. Ms N also insisted that lil’ brother have his eyes examined because he continually laid his head down on the table to color with only one eye open. The eye doctor dryly assured us-he sees just fine.

Chapter 1: In first grade, lil’ brother never spelled a word the same way twice. Even when directly copying. Need some variety in spelling c-a-t? Just ask lil brother-he’s your man. Mr B became convinced that lil' brother needed to have his hearing tested. Maybe he’s just not hearing the spelling words and that’s why he can’t spell them. “Do you notice how loud he listens to the TV and when we call him three times he still doesn’t come downstairs ?!?” So we got our concerned pediatrician to refer us to a specialist-who put wires in his ears and stuffed him in a sound proof box and scratched squiggles on a piece of paper- while lil’ brother hollered back, “Whaaaaaaat did you say? I can’t heeeeaaaaarrrr you!” At the follow up meeting, Mr B and I leaned in closely, bracing ourselves for the news-lil’ brother hears just fine.

Chapter 2: At the 2nd grade parent/teacher conference Ms W and I expressed our shared concern about lil’ brother’s reluctance/boredom with reading. In the follow up email last week, she informed me that lil’ brother’s achievement scores had arrived and the results were conclusive. I braced myself - ready for impact. Looks like lil’ brother learns just fine- and is significantly smarter than his befuddled parents had reckoned. Oh,……hay-ell! So we’re burying this little bit of information in the back closet file marked “Lil Brother Must Never Know.” If knowledge is power-not sure I want lil’ brother tapping into his natural resources.

Wisdom of the Ages:
Of all the animals, the boy is the most unmanageable.
Plato