The Three Rs, With Some Misery Thrown In For Good Measure

We had a couple weeks of tough behavior coming from Jackson, which after a lot of prodding came out as frustrations and difficulties he'd been having with school.  The school...oh, this school.  My nephew has learned to politely say that certain foods are not his favorite when he's faced with something he intensely dislikes, so I've taken a lesson from him and I'll just say that this school is not my favorite.  I don't want to generalize about an entire country--it's hard to say which frustrations simply stem from differences in educational philosophy that I would find at any school here, or which ones are related to this school in particular...either way, it has been a challenging experience to find a well of patience deep enough to get through the school year.

Jackson's well had run dry--he began saying he hated school, that he wished school was never invented, which was so hard for me to hear.  Back home (and this is no exaggeration), he would excitedly say as I drove him to school in the morning, "I wonder what we're going to learn today!".  It was hard for him to feel as well, and it was coming out in agitated, unacceptable behavior around the house and towards us.  One night, he finally confided in me that a couple of weeks earlier, he had been repeatedly taunted by older students to throw a juice box at them--and he did--and the principal at school happened to be walking by and told him he was being an idiot with the juice box.

An idiot?


Throwing a juice box at someone is admittedly not the best choice, but I would expect more out of someone in a position of authority than to demean a child by using such an insult.  Again, I'd like to not chalk this up to being reflective of Australian culture as a whole, but when I told another Australian about this incident, he said that when he was a kid, his teacher wrote on the board "Idiot 1", "Idiot 2", and "Idiot 3", and would have children stand under those labels if they were misbehaving.

Simply opening up about his feelings has helped Jackson tremendously--he also took the initiative to speak to his teacher about his feelings towards the principal.  This all coincided with being able to choose his own project for this school term; I thought this was a great opportunity for him to get engaged with something he was interested in.  The boys spend many a pre-bedtime evening sitting in a dark room listening to Sam read the Lord of the Rings books by headlamp, so he decided to make Bilbo Baggins' hut.  Jackson's interest waxed and waned throughout the development and creation of the project, but he had an undeniably proud grin on his face as we carried the hut in all its paper mache glory into his classroom.  

Since then, his attitude has changed; he is striving to be Student of the Week and is making a concerted effort to be helpful in the classroom.  He and Alex both will still freely express frustration and dislike for their school, but it doesn't seem to be a dark cloud hanging over every moment like it was for a while there.

Just this morning as we walked to school, Jackson said, "I'm just taking it week by week, Mom.  That's the only way I'm going to get through this school year."  Wise words, kiddo.

Here Comes the Sun

I'd like to say that we had glorious weather all week. I wish I could complain about having to wear sunglasses, that I was getting little indentations on the sides of my nose from wearing them so much of the day. I'd like to announce that I'm sick of the color blue, that the skies had just been throwing their color in my face for days on end and I'm over it. I wish I could post some obnoxious status update on Facebook, something like 'Is it possible to wear a hole in a sand castle bucket? Picked up the kids from school and spent yet ANOTHER afternoon at the beach! Whew!'.

I wish I could say those things, but I heard today that it's supposed to continue to rain for the month of February. It's laugh or cry, right? Hahahahahahahaha (as I slip on my rain jacket, grasp my umbrella, and watch as the plumbers drain my building's flooded garage).

Even though the weather has been less than desirable, this week has in fact been glorious. Remember Alex, who hated his new school? One week ago today, he cried and told me he didn't want to go to school for the rest of the year. On Sunday night as we rode the high from our awesome beach and Sydney weekend, I asked him what his goal was for the upcoming week--he said to not complain on the walk to school. I thought that was great, and added that it would be nice to make a friend as well.

Well, I'm happy to report that not only did Alex meet his goal of not complaining on the walk to (and from) school, he also made a friend. Ahhhh, the clouds are parting.

AND--he was named Student of the Week for his 'enthusiasm and good grammar'.

AND--he got 100% on his spelling test today.

Jackson didn't have a shabby week, either--he earned WOW awards for various achievements, was notified that his 1st place in 50m butterfly earned him a right to compete at the regional swimming carnival against different schools, got 100% on his spelling test...

AND to top it off, he was voted one of two class representatives for Student Representative Council.

It may be raining outside, but somehow I'm only seeing sunshine at the moment.

Diving Right In

On his first day at a new school in a new country, Jackson signed up for the swimming carnival--and not just one race, but all 5 of the available events: 50m freestyle, 50m backstroke, 50m breaststroke, 50m butterfly, and 100m freestyle.  On Thursday, the day of the race, we were on day 2 of solid rain, so you can imagine how thrilled I was to have volunteered to be a timekeeper.  Slogging the kids on foot to and from their schools hasn't been quite enough time in the rain for me, so on this day I got an extra 2.5 hour dose of grey skies and rain!!

In all honesty, I was really excited to see Jackson swim, and all the kids were in great spirits despite the wet weather--I'm just learning that blue skies are essential to my well-being and positive outlook.

But enough about me; this post is about Jackson.  He was a champ, competing in all five of the events he signed up for, even though it meant that his towel was no match for repeated assaults by a wet kid and the rain.  At some point it was probably making Jackson wetter. With each progressive race, I noticed a growing tinge of blue on his lips, but they remained curled into a smile.

It was hard to tell how he did; I was watching him while dutifully timing the lane I was responsible for, and some heats had mixed ages of kids.  Besides, some of these kids swim competitively, and you could tell who they were by their strong, smooth strokes and their question of their time as soon as their heads emerged, dripping, from underwater.  After the race, I rewarded Jackson with some hot chips (french fries) and cocoa, and he didn't even get out of the car to get his brothers from school; he had given his all and was completely tapped out.

The next day at school, there was a schoolwide assembly to announce the winners.  Jackson, only being one of a few brave kids his age to do the 50m butterfly, walked away with this...

And then, if you all couldn't see his justifiable pride swelling from across the world already, he was also called up a second time to be recognized with a different certificate:

Awesome job, kiddo.  Showing this gusto for life will take you good places, and I absolutely love watching you dive right into life.