Surprise~ Party

Last night Miss 9 had oodles of homework. Because of her struggles with school and a written expression learning disability Hubby and I often sit with her to do her homework and help when needed. Usually her main problems are with focusing on the work and spelling words correctly and legibly. At school she is used to doing her work, there are distractions of course, but that is the place for school work, so it's not a problem for her to finish her assignments on time. She also has a handy dandy speller helper that lets her correct her own spelling errors by typing in how she thinks something should be spelled, the checker offers correct spellings and she is off and running. Unfortunately she is not allowed to bring that home, so at home I am the speller checker. Miss 9 also has a terrible time focusing at home. It's not school therefore it's not the place to do school work. Despite a relatively quiet kitchen and all the tools she needs it is still tough for her to stay on task. She has lots she needs to tell us, things to make sure have been done, etc. My mantra at homework time is always the same, "back to work, back to work" or "look homework, let's finish it!"

Because her teacher is a first year teacher, I allow her some mistakes now and then without too much complaining. One of the mistakes was yesterday and it resulted in 4 subjects of homework along with spelling test practice and the required 15 minutes of reading each night. That's a lot for me, let alone for Miss 9 and her struggles. (I HATE the word disabilities for learning issues!)

Miss 9 had a field trip yesterday during school hours. That is wonderful, but it does take away from classroom time. So one would think that the teacher would think, "hmmmm, perhaps since we are missing 2 hours of classroom time for this field trip, I won't be able to fit in all the subjects we usually do." One would think.... BUT... you knew there was a but, right? But... no, she didn't think that, instead she crammed all the subjects into their day. Thus homework for all. Homework is fine, I don't mind homework at all, but hours of homework in 4th grade; that's something I mind. Knowing that I help Miss 9 with homework I don't worry as much. But I also know the other kids in her class aren't as lucky as she is. Many of the other parents never check to see if their student has homework, or even helps them with it. I wonder how many of Miss 9's classmates went to bed last night not even doing their homework. And then I wonder how many parents are going to be reading them the riot act for not getting their assignments in.

On to the Surprise~ Party section of my post. Last night as Hubby, Miss 9 and I were laying on our bed doing the 15 minutes of reading required each night we heard noises: loud voices, slamming car doors, giggling, guffawing. Then we heard the front door open and shut, more voices, more noises, more laughing and lots of footsteps. Since I was comfy cozy and so was Miss 9 we sent Hubby to figure out what was going on. Mr 18 had decided to bring home some friends for a while. That's great! We have the basement set up for just that purpose. We want Mr 18 and Miss 14 and all their posse's to be comfortable enough to hang out here whenever they want. But, poor Miss 14 had just washed her face, put on her very short, shorts that are her pj's and headed to the basement to watch a few minutes of tv before retiring for the night. Suddenly an entire troop of 18 and 19 year old boys, at least 11 strong, are headed down the stairs. Mr 18, demands the basement, and Miss 14 stomps upstairs to avoid the fight that would surely follow. She was a bit put off to say the least. I can't say I blame her. I think perhaps we should ask for a 2 minute warning whenever they decide to bring friends home, that way no one would be running around in clothing that doesn't cover all their body parts. Mr 18 and his friends hung out for nearly 2 hours. They were loud and I was annoyed. I was tempted to chew him out and ask them to be quiet, but that would defeat the purpose of an open door policy to him and his friends, so I kept my mouth shut. They were gone by 11 p.m., so I am grateful for that. But I think a 2 minute warning rule should apply anyway. Don't you?