Fun on Friday!

I did not know my limits this week. I took on a bit too much and was dead tired last night. WOW, did I over sleep today! I was late for work and took it upon myself to make it a jeans day (only my brother and I are at the office today so it didn't really matter that I looked like hell!).

I stayed up really late the other night after working with Wonder Boy on the 4th grade bug project (find, identify, display, and label 20 different 6 legged insects). What is it about me that I need at least an hour and a half to settle down once the kids go to bed? What is that about?

Wonder Boy had a lot of guts this week. Apparently he decided to disregard the teacher's instructions on that bug assignment. In years past kids made big displays of the bug collections -- like making a scene type thing. Super Girl's was a soccer field with bugs as all the players last year (labeled with the correct names of course!).

Wonder Boy had decided on making a classroom with the biggest bug as the teacher. He insisted there be a playground too -- so that the jumping bugs could play hopscotch. His idea for the board in the classroom was to write "Homework: Work on Human Project."

Wonder Boy had it all planned out. The teacher gave the assignment and he told us that she said they didn't need to do the big displays. He gave us the impression it was okay to do, but not encouraged so that kids would not be killing themselves to out do each other. Well, in reality the teacher said NOT to do the display. We did the big classroom display he wanted -- offering him the option of the plain version several times.

He brought it to school yesterday and got the "Oh, you didn't follow instructions" comment. 9 year old Wonder Boy was crushed. Last night he explained to me that he knew it wasn't what she wanted, but that he'd had the plan before she gave the assignment (the trimmed down version) and that he had decided to go for it anyway. He had decided that his project would blow her away and that it would be okay that he disregarded the instructions. Ugh.

That kid has guts. I'm proud of him that he worked hard on the project and lived his dream, I'm disappointed that he set himself up for failure. When chatting about it he really thought that we knew. Ugh. I apologized to him for not asking "Did she tell you NOT to do the big display?" Had I asked that specific question we would have avoided the "not following directions" scenario. He then realized his fatal error. He said that no matter what I could not have saved him -- he WOULD have done it the same way even if I had told him not to.

We shall see how today goes. I think Wonder Boy learned a lesson. I hope his teacher crushes him gently...... I bet she thinks our family is insane. This after I just spoke with her last week about my concerns with Wonder Boy adjusting... UGH! I think it is harder to step back and let our children suffer their consequences than it is to rescue them. Wonder Boy and Super Girl are both heading for consequences today. She didn't get her planner signed by us because she wasn't using it correctly (this is how the school system trains us parents to help the kids be more responsible starting in Grade 5). So today at recess she must sit at the wall for 5 WHOLE MINUTES! OH THE HUMANITY!

Tonight hubby and I have a date to go to the BIG GAME. The kids are staying at Satan's house -- plans are in place for them to cook up a storm. There are strict instructions for early bed times since we have soccer and must pick them up at 8am. Super Girl is run down from staying up late doing her homework this week. Hopefully Satan will respect the fact this kid need sleep. Otherwise I'll be inviting her to care for Wonder Girl when she gets sick.

On a lighter note: I'm excited about the game tonight and actually having a date with Hubby.