IT'S ON!!!

Someone hold my purse, and my phone, and my heels, and my earrings. Hand me that hairband, I need to pull back my hair. Anyone got some Vaseline? I need to rub it on my face so she can't scratch me. 'Cause there's gonna be a FIGHT TONIGHT!!!!

Matt and I went to Parent/Teacher Conferences tonight. And let me start out by saying that I am not one of those moms who says "Oh No, it can't be MY little darling!!!" Trust me, I am well aware that it can always be my kid. ( and usually is)

We went to this conference knowing that Emerson has been having trouble with homework this trimester. The teacher and I have been emailing back and forth and I think that we finally got it under control. Em was incredibly proud that she had no late slips last week and got rewarded for it at home. She gets it. Homework = reward, No Homework = no reward or TV or computer or freedom of any kind. Even a monkey understands that!

We have never really had too much of a problem with Emerson at school, she enjoys it. She has always done her homework in the past and has gotten good grades.

This year is apparently different, and I believe she needed this first trimester to gather her sea legs, so to speak. And I'm all for not dwelling on the past. We found the problem, we corrected it, LET'S MOVE ON!

But OH NO!! We have to discuss in detail everything that Emerson is doing wrong. And the worst thing about it is that she insisted that Emerson be there for this bash fest! She even told Emerson that she had a lot of good things to tell us, LIE!!!! Emerson actually teared up!

She brought out about 10 sheets of work to show us how Emerson spells. Why 10? We got it on the first example. Then she is asking Em what the words were, how is that productive? She suggested a reader, which is a book like a dictionary but without the definitions. Fine, I pick one up tomorrow for her and we will work with her more on her spelling. (Why, when the whole world has spell check? I have no idea) But mine is not to reason why but to do or die.

Then she talked about her reading goal for October. She was suppose to read 3 chapter books, done. She was suppose to take the Accelerated Reading test on all of them, done. She was suppose to be reading at a 3.0 grade, done. (actually a 3.2) She was suppose to get a 85% on the tests, oops, she got a 83.3% Result: DID NOT REACH HER GOAL!!!!! WTF??? Here's how that little conversation went:

Me: "So she didn't reach her goal because of the 83.3%?"

Teacher: "That's right, she needed an 85%"

Me: "Just so I understand, she missed the goal because of 1.7%?"

Teacher: "Well, it's 2%."

Me: (under my breath because Matt was pinching me under the table) "In what universe does 85 minus 83.3 equal 2?

Here's the KICKER!!!! We got Em's report card from her, all A's and B's with 1 C for spelling!!! I wonder what she said to the kids who were failing???? Did she shove bamboo shoots under their fingernails?

I know what you're going to say; "She must not think that Em's working to her full potential." "Cut the teacher some slack" "You're not being fair." Yadda Yadda Yadda.

I don't wanna!!!! I'm wearing the "mom's hat" and I don't have to play fair!!!!

Here's the conversation when Matt and I were leaving.

Matt: "You looked pretty pissed in there."

Me: " But did I look scary?"

Matt: "You looked pretty scary."

Me: "Good!! That's what I was going for."

Matt: "I guess you won't be first choice to chaperone the next field trip."

Me: "Nope, probably not."

Sorry about the ranting but this just buttered my biscuits!! I'm over it now.

Thank you *curtsy*