3rd grade

He's in 3rd grade.

and in Mississippi it is 9 week exam time.  Third grade is huge.  It is the benchmark grade where you MUST meet certain criteria to move on.  Apparently this is made clear at school because Ryker is very aware of it.  Anyway, comprehensive exams covering the last 9 weeks of material in spelling, math, reading, and science all happen this week.  As Ryker has been complaining that he has, "test every single day, hard ones, all in the same freaking week!"

So I made the choice to go to the park today.  Because he needed it.  His "I hate school, my teacher is the worst" attitude, which is very atypical for him, needed the mental break.

Park date delivered.  A surprise afternoon as a family of 6, on an abnormally hot, sunny October day.  My test stressed 8 year old, was nothing but snuggles and smiles.  He mastered the monkey bars a few times, but told Paul "don't talk to me I have to concentrate!"  He doesn't mess around when monkeying around.  Then he helped Hartley on the slide.  Cutest, most lovable kid ever.

After showers they played less than 15 minutes of Mario Kart, their only screen time of the day.

 Also note my priorities in life are correct: Halloween decorations up, but laundry basket full of clean clothes that need folded and put away.

Then 7pm rolled around, and I figured we could just do his spelling words quickly before bed.  He always gets 100%.  I'd say the word, he'd spell it out loud while bouncing a ball around the room.  He missed a few words when we were going over them, and got all in a fit, because if he misses a few he won't get 100% A+ on his graded test paper.  My type A, perfection driven, firstborn.  He's so hard on himself.  So, very, hard.  I hate it for him, and I hate that I don't know how to help him to understand that it is okay to not be perfect.  We moved onto studying the math study guide, he said "I didn't hear anything you were trying to say."  Which was my cue to say "that is fine, we've still got tomorrow, you've done great studying tonight."  And apparently that was just the worst thing to say, ever.  He got all worked up, and it was just melt down central.

"I don't want to do homework tomorrow.  I want to play basketball after school with dad.  School is stupid, I hate school.  My teacher is so mean for giving so much homework…yadayadayada."  He stormed up to his room, and hated me for the rest of the night and would only speak to Paul.  Paul had him in smiles before bed, and had to reassure me that I wasn't being hard on him at all, or a crappy parent while I was trying to help him study tonight.  This parenting gig is the best, hardest thing ever, and I am just so very thankful I've got him to help me!

Anyway, so that was my parenting fail.  Apparently attempting spelling words, then his least favorite subject…math... after a long day of school then evening out at the park was just a wash.  But the real fail I think is having a bunch of 3rd graders take comprehensive exams like they expect high schoolers to do.  I wonder the rational behind doing exams all in the same week, and not spreading it over 2 weeks at least?  It sure would make life a bit less stressful for my guy, who told me "I'm not going to school tomorrow" when I attempted to kiss him goodnight.

From one sad mama, and a stressed out test-dreading 8 year old I'm hoping for a better next two days of  school for my favorite firstborn.