Mostly about Joseph

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I've had a better week than weekend, thank goodness. I think I've been too busy to feel sorry for myself!


The boys are now in their final stretch of school. They turned in their last 4 book reports this past week. They have a field trip today, two half-days next week, and things are generally winding down.


Joseph has been having some trouble with school recently. I can't quite figure out what is wrong. He is not a morning person (neither am I), and it's always been hard for him to get up and moving in the morning. This year was better than last year because I just moved our whole morning routine up a half-hour, so we'd have a little more time. But still, a few times the past few weeks, Joseph has really not wanted to get up, and has really not wanted to go to school. Then I got a couple notes sent home because Joseph was acting "lethargic" and was sent to the nurse's office. He's stay there 45 minutes, then go back to class and be ok the rest of the day. His teacher told me sometimes he'll just put his head down on his desk and not want to do his work.


On Monday he had a bad morning. It took a long time to get him to come downstairs, and then once he did, he announced he wasn't going to school. In the past, I've tried to just cheer him up, and send him to school anyway, but on Monday I could tell that if I did that, he would not have a good day. I just knew that if I made him go, he'd put his head on his desk and shut down. Some kids can be distracted, and Joseph can to a certain extent, but I just knew it wouldn't happen that morning. I asked him what his special was that day, and he said P.E. which I know he likes. So I told him he could stay home until his special, but then he had to go to school. And I told him he would have to do exactly what he'd do at school while he was at home. So Brigham went off to school, and Joseph sat down at the kitchen table and did some journalling (every Monday they write about what they did over the weekend), and then we worked on some math worksheets.


He did great! He was happy to do his work, and then happily went off to school at 8:45.


I have no idea what that was about. I know he likes his teacher, and I know she likes him. He likes his specials, he has good friends, he's doing fine academically. So I'm stumped.


On Wednesday he pulled the same trick, but I told him he had to go to school. He can't stay home and go to school late every day. I got really mad, mostly because in the mornings I just don't have time to deal with it! It took him 2o minutes to come down the stairs, and then he refused to get dressed. I'm trying to get lunches made, kids fed, scriptures read, and backpacks ready for school, and I just didn't have time to sit there and figure out the right words to make him go to school. Finally Ben took over (thank goodness, I was doing more harm than good at that point) and Joseph told Ben that he wanted to be homeschooled, that he didn't want to go to school anymore. Well, I'm kind of glad to hear this, since I want to homeschool the boys anyway, but I sure wish I knew what was upsetting him so much about school. Ben talked to Joseph for a while and told him he can't make a big decision like this in one morning, so he had to go to school for the rest of the week, and then next week he can try homeschooling if he wants, to see if he really does like that more than school.


So I guess the plan is that next week, Tues-Thurs (Tues and Thurs are half-days anyway) the boys will stay home and we'll do a trial run for homeschooling. I told Brigham he could go to school, or stay home and homeschool, whatever he wanted. He said he wanted to "do school with Joseph," so I guess he'll stay home too.


I'm tired of fighting battles with Joseph. Especially over school, when I'm not too thrilled about sending him to public school anyway! Kind of ironic that me, of all people, would have to force my kid to go to school. We only have 4 weeks left, though, and I really just want him to finish up the year with a good attitude.


The other battle I've been fighting with Joseph is Tae Kwon Do. On Thursdays they have two classes in a row, the regular class, and then the black-belt club. It is a long afternoon, 4:45-6:15.


Joseph has been saying the past several weeks that he doesn't want to go to black belt club. Well, Brigham does, so if Joseph doesn't go, he has to just sit there and wait! So he may as well participate! Plus, Black-belt club is sort of a "fun" class, where they learn extreme kicks, grappling moves, weapons (they're learning nunchucks right now), and I hate for Joseph to miss out.


Anyway, last week and this week he's been saying he doesn't want to do TKD anymore. I don't know what to do about this. I don't think I should force him to do a sport he doesn't really like, and I don't expect him to do TKD for the rest of his life! But I also don't want him to quit just because he's a little bored, or TKD's getting a little hard. Plus, Brigham really likes it, and I can't leave Joseph home alone. And I like TKD for lots of reasons. It's great discipline, good exercise, good for their brains (they have to memorize "patterns"), and Mr. Fisher, their teacher, I think is a really good male role model for the boys. And little boys need all the positive male role models they can get. And I'd feel bad withdrawing Joseph from class for no good reason. I think I will pull them out over the summer, since they're going to be gone for so long, and maybe after he's had a few weeks off, he can go back and make a decision if he wants to continue or not.


Sigh... Six year olds are so complicated! :-)


Everything else is going ok. No news on my MRI yet. I talked to Dr. Hutton's nurse this week, and she said they're still trying to schedule the MRI, and that Dr. Hutton was going to talk to the TCH people to see what the hold-up was. That was on Tuesday I think (that he was going to talk to TCH)? Well, she hasn't gotten back to me yet. Now I don't know if I should bug her again, or just wait. I hate that. I wish they would just keep me informed, even if there is no news. Just so I know I'm not being forgotten. I hate to be a pain in the neck, but I also really don't want to be ignored! I think I will send her another email today.


Brigham and Mosey are doing fine. Joseph sort of monopolized my thoughts this week.