Grab a chair and a couple of root beers...

Dear Mr. Knickerbocker,

I utterly adore you. You are undeniably the best math teacher the Impertinent Daughter has had so far since she's been in school, and if I could, I would clone you and seed you around this district to boost their abysmal math scores. This is the first year I haven't had to tutor her, and it's been totally awesome to see her enthusiasm for math come back.

I only feel bad that you had to spend so much of your time tutoring your classes in algebra, instead of teaching geometry, which is what you're actually supposed to be teaching, since the TAKS for freshman year has more algebra on it than anything else. And I thoroughly enjoyed your pithy remarks about the algebra teachers at the junior high "writing our own textbook as we go along," which made your job so much harder this year.

You are totally made of awesome. Just thought you ought to know.

with great enthusiasm,

Auntie


I figured it was time I actually complimented one of my kids' teachers, rather than complain like I usually do!

Dunno if y'all remember this post, but it was one of the saddest days in our little family's lives. Henry's was a wonderful restaurant, very relaxed and family friendly, intimate, and the food was good. Plain, but really good, tasty... and that Belgian Chocolate Cheesecake was to die for! Let me tell you, it was totally worth the migraine!!

We made going to Henry's after trick-or-treating on Halloween an annual tradition, thought it's not like we didn't go there regularly anyway. I sometimes went there after dropping off the kids at school and ordered hot chocolate, or a piece of pie, and sat there with my notebook, scribbling notes on whatever plot bunny had bitten me that day for a couple of hours. It was just that kind of place. And when it closed, it really hurt.

It didn't go out of business. What happened was... the building's owner raised the rent. Henry's was doing a booming business, one of the few "home-cookin'" type restaurants in town that didn't serve barbecue, and I guess the building owner wanted some of the profits, but... they got a little greedy. The owner of Henry's wouldn't stand for it, and threatened to shut down if the price wasn't lowered to a more reasonable level. The building owner thought it was a bluff. And Henry's closed.

I guess the building owner thought it would be no problem for another restaurant to open and do a booming business. So, a little Tex-Mex place opened. Only problem is, we have Mr. Taco. We have Guadalajara. We have Maria's. We have another little place, I can't remember the name, La Plaza or something. In other words, the place is crawling with little Tex-Mex places, so... it closed after two months. "Rogelio's" I think it was called. Food was... okay. Nothing to write home about. I've had better at my friend's houses growing up. Another Tex-Mex place opened up and closed after only a few weeks. The building has been empty since.

So, Tuesday, the Husbandly One had the day off, because we had to go to the junior high and meet with the Impertinent Daughter's guidance counselor to talk about her four year high school plan. And after that was done, we had gone wandering around town, looking at what was new and what was gone. A new bakery has opened up, which we enjoyed immensely, and a couple of new shops have opened. And a few have closed. We walked the square and looked sadly at the building Henry's had been in. "Man," THO had said, "it sure would have been great to have lunch at Henry's today."

"Yeah," I said sadly.

*sigh*

So, today, I was reading the town newspaper, and was skimming through the sports page when I saw an ad at the bottom of one page that made me rub my eyes and look at it again, then pick up my reading glasses, put them on, and read it yet again.

Henry's Restaurant, open daily...

The picture was the familiar, and I wondered if it was somebody's idea of a sick joke. But as I stared at it, and read it over and over, it began to sink in.

Henry's ... it's BACK!!

HENRY'S IS BACK!!!!

Oh, YEAH, you just KNOW we went there for dinner tonight!!

*happy, happy, joy, joy*

There's been a few changes; the long counter with the bar stools is gone (oh, how I'll miss that!), and you can no longer see the cooks working in the kitchen (I'll miss that, too!), but the food is still good, the waitresses friendly, and it was like it had never been gone! It was TOTALLY AWESOME!!!

And if that's not enough to make my cup runneth over...

The Impossible Son did his homework... WITHOUT ANY PROMPTS OR REMINDERS FROM ME!! And you know what else? He did his math homework, it was all subtraction... he did it by himself AND ... HE GOT IT ALL RIGHT IN ONE GO!!!

*dance of joy, dance of joy*

I'm so happy for him!!! My son just totally ROCKS!!

*hugs everyone on her f-list in an excess of joy*

So, there I was, about to pop some chicken in the microwave for my lunch... and my phone starts ringing. It's Ms. Teacher calling me, telling me she got my message.

What? No, she had no idea the Impossible Son might be getting bullied! She's never seen anything, except maybe when they're standing in the lunch lines, and then they're only just kind of jumpy, wiggly, and just... acting like little boys!

What? Define acting like little boys? Well, they just can't keep still, can they? They jump, skip, kind of nudge each other, that sort of thing.

The playground? Well, they have a P.E. teacher for P.E., and I haven't been on the recess rotation this semester, I'm helping with testing and tutoring, but the teachers that are outside on the playground haven't reported any problems. Well, wait, I'll take that back. Last week, Mr. Manzie was put in time out for throwing a rock at another little boy. What? My goodness, how did you know, did X's parents say something to you? Oh, you mean X is the one you think is bullying Impossible? Well, I've never seen anything... but then I have 14 kids in my class. It's the biggest second grade class at our school, and it's a little hard to keep my eye on them all. And you know, the girls are so much easier to deal with than the boys!

I don't think I have to go any further, do I? The woman is oblivious, and she has mentioned to me repeatedly all year how overwhelmed she is by fourteen students!! Fourteen!!! Honey, when I was in elementary school, there were sometimes thirty six kids in my class with one teacher... and no teacher aides. And there were never less than thirty two. When I got into middle school, I went to a "magnet" school that boasted about smaller class size, which translated to 24 students to a teacher per class. And she's complaining about 14? Granted, at my son's elementary school, the usual class size is ten to twelve.

And the thing about the rock throwing? That is so unlike my son that I am stunned! What really blows my mind about this is the fact that we had to punish Mr. Manzie for doing the same thing last night. He threw a rock at one of the Fireman and Coffee Lady's kids. This, after the kid in question had been shouting something at him that the Impossible Son refused to discuss, but would get red in the face every time he thought about it, looking toward me with his lips pressed very tightly together before looking back down at his feet. In other words, he had put up with it as long as he could, until he finally snapped and threw a rock. The fact that he threw a rock at the kid who was bullying him doesn't seem to be much of a coincidence now.

The thing is, the Impossible Son is such an incredibly laid-back little guy. Stuff usually rolls off his back like water off a duck... but he can get his feelings hurt, and when it happens... he just wilts. He goes off to be by himself, just to get over his mad, and then he's back and all smiles again. He's very like me in that way. However, if you keep pestering him, and don't let him get over it... well... the results are never good. But it doesn't happen often, and it's very rarely physical.

*sigh*

I also asked about his math scores (again), hoping to get a more definitive answer. Ah, vain hope, how you fade against the light! Okay, that's me being overly dramatic, but, jays, I'm telling y'all... "Oh, he's doing fine, he's doing so much better, it's mostly a matter of him staying on focus, and yes, there's some test anxiety there, but I'm sure we can work him through it..."

Yes, because last semester, his math test scores were so much higher, and suddenly this semester, he's tanking, oh, yes, thank you, that all makes so much sense now! How silly of me to be concerned!!

I have higher hopes of the school counselor.

The Husbandly One wants to transfer him to another school. I pointed out to him that Mr. Manzie's problems are specific to one teacher, a teacher who is new at the school (and new to teaching), and not with the school per se. If I thought it was worth it, I would ask that he be transferred to another class, but we only have three and a half weeks left. He does have good friends in his class (his best friend is in the class), and I had told him this morning to stick with his friends and ignore anyone else. When I picked him up after school, he came racing to me as usual, and threw his arms around me, hugging me a little harder than he usually does.

"I really love you, Mom," he said, and I hugged him back, telling him I loved him dearly, dearly.

He grabbed my hand so we could start walking to the car. "My teacher said you called today. She said you called five times!!"

"Um... yes, yes, I did," I said, wondering what was going on.

He grinned and said, "I'm glad. I'm really glad!"

"Oh? Why?"

"Because she told me what a good job I'm doing in math, and that she's proud of how hard I've been working."

"I see," I said, wondering where this was going. "Well, so... how was today?"

"It wasn't too bad. I stayed with my friends, like you said, and I had a really good day." And he started skipping along happily beside me, chattering away like a little bluejay, and I wondered again about how resilient kids are, and that sometimes, all it takes to make me happy is to see him cheerfully skipping along beside me, talking about silly things, and making the odd little noises boys are so prone to making, all in an effort to gross me out...

I guess we'll just have to wait and see what tomorrow brings...

Someone's apparently been whacking me in the chest and back with baseball bats while I wasn't looking. Breathing is still vastly over-rated. Itching sucks big dogs. And I can't find my left black flip-flop.

The GOOD news is... the Impossible Son got 100's on his last two math tests!!! WOOT!!

I have now used my my ten seconds of energy. Back to bed for Auntie. Yay whoopie yay.

There are times when I am forcefully confronted with the differences between my children.

I am very much aware that my kids are two different people. After all, look at the names I've given them; the Impertinent Daughter and the Impossible Son. She is inventive, a quick thinker, a little brash at times, stubborn, loving, and though a bit prickly at times, she has a good heart. He is generous, never met a stranger, quirky, stubborn, good natured, and easily hurt at times. And both of them are very bright, full of mischief, and transparent as water (fortunately for me).

But... they are two different people.

Today, I was trying to help Mr. Manzie with his math homework. Now, our district has a light to no homework policy for students. This is very frustrating for me as I see homework as (1) practice for the kids and (2) a way for parents to keep up with what they're learning in the classroom and, more importantly, how it is being taught. Since he always brings home spelling words, and a reading assignment, I only have a very vague idea what they're doing in math, though I do try to keep up by hitting the school's website, hitting his teacher's webpage, and then taking time to talk to his teacher as much as possible. Still, as I said, it gives me a very vague idea what he is doing in class.

So, when he came home with a D, tottering very close to an F, in math, well... I wasn't surprised, but I was frustrated. We've been going over flash-cards, and math problems on the computer, etc... but... we evidently missed something.

He brought math homework home today (after I asked the teacher between clenched teeth to please send something related to the math they were doing in class home so I can help him), and, well...

My kids are two different people.

Logic works on the Impertinent Daughter. If you said to her, "9 + 9 = 18, so if you take 9 away from 18, that would be?" and she'd frown, thinking, then say, "It's 9." You say that to the Impossible Son, and he looks up at you, smiles, and says, "Um... 17?"

So, you rephrase it and say, "If 9 + 9 = 18, then 18 - 9 =...?"

"Um... 19?"

I had to remind myself that in a lot of ways, he's a more visually oriented person than Miss Priss is. And that logic doesn't work on him.

Why do I say this? ( You might want to pass this part up, Em. Breastfeeding references here... )

I had to keep that in mind while trying to help him with his math homework. And I'm not saying I've figured it out yet, but heck, if I have to, I will dig out the Legos to get him over his mental hump, especially since they are working with adding and subtracting double digits. Think visual aids, Auntie!

I just have to remind myself, what works with one child won't necessarily work with the other because... they are two different people.

*sigh*

The Impertinent Daughter took her diagnostic Math TAKS yesterday and guess what? Guess what, guess what, guess what???

SHE GOT A 96!!!! IN SPITE OF HER TEACHER!!! WHO SAID SHE WASN'T HONORS MATH MATERIAL!!!!


WOOT!! WOOT!! WOOT!!!

Let's see, last time she took the diagnostic, after following her teacher's directions, she got a 67. She takes it this time, after listening to US and gets a 96!!

BOO-YAH!!! In your FACE!!!

(am I way too enthusiastic about this or what??)

I'm so happy for her! I'm so happy, because she's got that 1o million megawatt, OMG-I-can-really-do-this smile on her face, and I know she's going to do just fine on the real TAKS!

*does a victory dance*

YAY WHOOPIE YAY!!!!