The boys started school last week on Wednesday. Our youngest came home in tears asking if he was smart. Apparently their "old" school uses a reward system with cards based on the kids grade pt average. He is only 10 and it totally broke his heart. They handed out said cards in an assembly to all the kids in the school. With each card they get to do more stuff. He got the low card. Kids who got a grade point average of 3.75 to 4.0 got to do more stuff. Like go to lunch early, get homework passes, computer lab pass, library pass, and something else I cannot remember. This school district moved the 5th grade over to the JR. high. Anyway~~~~my husband and I were outraged over this. Basically the school is labeling the kids. Everyday they have to carry around this card and it says what they can and cannot do. It was crazy! So, we spoke with the principal and the superintendent over this deal. They are in agreement that it is a good reward system. That it makes the kids work harder. That is far from the truth.....a lot of the kids don't like it. One kid told me what about the kids who never get a white, red, or black card. What about the kids who don't learn like the rest of use. This was coming from a 11 year old. Here he is concerned about the slower kids. Sigh~~~pretty darn sad to me.
So, we pulled our boys out of that school district and put them in a new one yesterday. What a change that was! My kids came home happy. My youngest was thrilled to have one teacher. He was excited about making new friends. My oldest thought that it was cool that he gets to play softball. YEAH! When I went to go get him for his physical he was out in the field learning how to march for band! How about that!! I am already excited for both of them. Both of their teachers seem super nice!
On the home front: we are starting to strip wallpaper from our home office. Egads! What a mess. It's amazing how many layers of wallpaper there were on our walls. I think 6 or 7. Our home is 104 years old and our walls are plaster and lath. We are just about there. They even wallpapered the ceiling. Once we get that stripped off the ceiling we will be ready to spackle the walls, prime, then paint. then we will do it all over again to the living room. Except in there we are removing paneling. That will be a major job because we are wanting to raise the ceiling again. Whoever lived here before us lowered the ceiling. So, we have a big job ahead of us. Enough for now. I need to look for a job now. I need all the luck I can get.
