Back to Nature

My eleven-year-old, who I keep calling my ten-year-old because I lost a year somewhere, has been begging me for an Instagram account.  I've been totally ignoring it, kinda of like the fact that he is eleven and almost as tall as me.

Tonight however he said, "I don't think I want an Instagram account anymore?"

After I checked to make sure he didn't have a fever I asked him why.

"Because Darin said that he didn't really like having an Instagram account because of how it made him feel. He said it was weird. And I asked him if it was because we aren't popular."

wow. give me a minute.

Sensitive, insightful, male....no wonder you aren't popular - YET! If only I could show him his 23 year-old self and say you going to be light years ahead of the popular kids. He went on...

"So today at recess Anthony said he would back us up and try to get everyone to play infection in stead of Hunger Games or whatever, but no one wanted to listen and so I said come on guys let's at least cooperate and vote. So they said fine and we said all in favor of infection and Darin and I were the only ones to raise our hands. Anthony just shrugged and said sorry. Why did he so that?"

Because not many people have the balls to stand outside the herd.  Look at nature.  Who do they kick out of the Pride? The one that won't eat his young to prove his manhood.

There is life outside the herd and I am proof of that.  There is also life outside of Facebook and Instagram. It may not feel like it right now, but I promise one say you won't be the one standing outside of the herd - you'll be the one leading it.

Test this!

It takes a major meltdown or five for me to figure out that my third grader is feeling a little too much stress.  Tonight was a whopper of a meltdown including a naked chest clutching child screaming "I'm going to Die!"

After 60 minutes of listening to screaming I wanted to clutch my own chest and scream "I wanna Die."  However, I could see that there was a bigger issue than the neighborhood soccer game gone arye and I needed to get to the bottom of it.

After finally getting the child to calm down and talk I discovered that he got two handball calls in the soccer game this week and Coach pulled him out of the game and his teammates "yelled" at him.  Translation - he was embarrassed.

What does this have to do with Third Grade you ask? Ah, but give it a moment.
 For I too was stupid enough to say it's just soccer, Don't sweat the small stuff.

No it wasn't just soccer.  Now as third graders they are taking several - that means three-  sets of standardized tests.  This started last week and as part of the Language Arts teachers practice for the big tests she is giving them little tests and scoring them in class.  So everyone gets to see if they are a 4,3,2 or 1.

Ahhh. I heard you sigh. I told -you would see where this is going.

"Well Jacob got a 4, and Lucy, and Isabella. And Deny got a 3..."

No matter how many times I tell my kids they are good enough and smart enough there will always be a standardize test to tell them they are not.  You know what I say - TEST THIS!!