Spring Fever

yep. he's got it.

just like his mother.

{sigh}

of all the things that you pass on to your kid, blue eyes, sense of humor, short legs, pudgy nose .... the intense need to break away from all forms of responsible rules; forego any and all previously laid out boundary lines (that, of course, do not break the law, that is) purposely ignore the intuitive side of your brain, and listen *deeply* to that raging amount of energy inside your core and break out to the freedom the time of year allows ...

that, yeah, THAT thing I passed on is absolutely in him. My son, that utterly enjoyable, magnificently packaged, tremendously entertaining boy has spring fever.

bad.

:o
In the big picture, is this a terrible thing? no.

Is it going to affect his future detrimentally? likely, no.

Is it treatable? no.

However, it might be something we need to temper. Because, well, because we have had our first parent teacher conference of the year, well actually ever. And the culprit, in the teacher's words, and mine - spring fever - silly, not-so-smart decisions, goofball antics with his posse.

{sigh}

I am very involved at school. I am the room mom for Kindergarten, and have been in school at least 2 times per week all year, helping in classrooms, and just being actively involved with them academically, and socially. I am on committees, and stay relatively close to the administration. I am familiar with most of the teachers throughout the school, and especially the kids two teachers. We communicate via notes, conversations in the classrooms, and on campus. She could have easily just chatted with us about this as an aside ... but she had an alterior motive, for sure.

There was a message being sent to my squirt. WHEN MOM AND DAD COME TO MEET THE TEACHER, THERE'S BEEN SOME S*^T HITTING THE FAN.

:-D

So, we go, and she prefaces the meeting with this, in a nutshell:

"I want you to know, this is so not a bad thing. My feelings are that with C knowing you are here, this will touch him deeply. I bet you he will turn right around, and the minor behavior that he and 'his buddies' are exhibiting will disappear. So rest assured, this is more of a formality than anything else. {phewf} In addition, I want you to both know academically, I have no worries whatsoever. He has taken off like a rocket ship and just loves school, it shows. (she then gave us his NECAPP testing scores, and she was right, he is doing fantastic academically, reading, spelling, math and science) {second phewf} I also want to let you know that his homework is wonderful, I am so impressed he does extra work with spelling, and math."

So, there we are, proud as peaches, listening to her gloat about his academics. Then, the other shoe drops, and we remembered why we were there ....

"C is making some poor choices just recently, with his behavior regarding disrupting the class at times, and also acting silly. He often is not the one who *thinks* of the silly thing, but when he sees they (the friends) are doing something silly, and 'just breaking the rules' he follows easily. He sure seems like he has even extra energy than he has had before." dagnabbit.

Yeah, we know.

"C can be a leader as well, and I often ask him to be the leader with mentoring some of the kids - he loves that. He can also do beautiful work, but is in a hurry to be done, and therefore can have messy work, and it can be illegible. We work on that, and I remind him that if the teacher can't read it, it'll be wrong, even when it's right - which it usually is correct. And I will add, but I know you know this, he is a pleasure to have in class"

smile. shake head. close eyes. chuckle. look at husband, repeat above - together this time.

yep. our kid: smart, leading, following, laughing, learning, acting silly, and full of life.

nailed it, Mrs. LC.

Welcome to our world.

In all honesty, we think that this surge in academic prowess perhaps may have him slightly bored, as well. He is working at a higher grade level, reading and spelling way up there, especially, and that is the focus for this school, so likely the time spent on that is lengthy daily in the classroom. In addition, he is seemingly in the smack dab middle of a growth spurt, and suffering from aforementioned spring fever like there is no tomorrow, his regular hockey schedule ended a month ago, and spring hockey is by far a lesser commitment time-wise (read: only 1-2 times a week on ice versus 4-5 during year) ..... add this all up with a normally bundle-of-energy-red-headed 7 year old, and you get enough electricity to run a small city - all sitting in a classroom. For 6 hours. And there are 16 boys in that class, and only 7 girls.

Dear, dear me. And that angel from heaven - his teacher - that woman is amazing. She moves them every 15-45 minutes inside that room. Stations, projects, recess, snack, fun papers, spelling quizes...you name it, she thought of it. She has a wonderful curriculum. The room is just wonderful too.

I really have to believe that he is just like me when it comes to this.

And something inside of me is really, really proud. I.cannot.help.it. I smile thinking about it. ;) This will serve him so well later in life. Heck, it's serving him well, now.

He has woo'd the teacher. She no doubt adores he, and his posse. She revels in their spirit.

She should. She has channeled that energy all year. She has grown their wings, they're just figuring out how to use them for the first time.

I love, love, love this age.

What a treasure. What a delight.

:o)