New School Year!

The other day, Aidan was telling me about how he was busted during recess for squabbling with another child about the wall ball court. When he told me that the other boy was in second grade, I thought, "What a lame boy! Picking on smaller kids!" Then it occurred to me, that Aidan IS in second grade!

HA!

When Aidan was an infant, I thought I would forever be living with a baby/toddler/needy one. Then, voila! He is in second grade. SECOND! GRADE!

He is assigned to a highly coveted classroom, according to another mother in his class. Because, his teacher, Mrs. W, assigns a lot of homework, which, if one is the 'drill and kill' kind of parent, works great.

I like to think that I am not the 'drill and kill' kind of parent, but I know for a fact that at least one person out there thinks I am a 'drill and kill' mother.

Over the summer, I had this med management appointment with F, who was in the process of getting his teaching credentials. He was telling me about how he got a job working at a summer camp, as we talked about it, I realized that he was going to be working at Aidan's summer camp. I had a decision to make: just tell him that Aidan is there, or, wait until I see him there when I pick Aidan up from camp. Of the two options, I thought to risk it and wait to see if I would run into F at camp would be far more awkward. In the split of a second, I made the decision to tell him. So I did. "Really? That is where my son will spend a couple of weeks this summer!" F said, "Cool! I will see you there then!"

I actually never saw F there, probably because we used aftercare, and most of the instructors were gone by then.

This past Friday, he came back for another follow up. F said, "Oh, I met your son, Aidan, right? He is really smart. When I did the orientation, the site director told me that if I didn't know what the routine is, to ask Aidan, that he can be really helpful." (What a nice compliment!) Then, F said, "I bet you are the 'drill and kill' kind of parent. That is how your son knows so much."

Ironically, he said that when he has his own class, he won't be assigning much homework, because he doesn't believe in the drill and kill methodology.

Personally, I like to think of my method as 'drill and thrill'- it is thrilling to play that piano technique song 15 times, isn't it?