The Breakfast Club
“Dad….I’ve got something to tell you and you’re probably going to be mad.”
“Oh, I don’t know Zoë. When you put it to me like that.”
“Did my teacher call you?”
“Oh Lord, Zoë. No, she didn’t What is it this time?”
“I got detention.”
“For what??!!”
“Not doing my homework.”
I suppose I should stop the recounting of our conversation here. Zoë does her homework. Daily. We have a homework routine that would rival many Harvard scholars. I credit my wife here for if it were left to me, the kids would wile away the afternoon hours idly playing in mud puddles, counting clouds and throwing rocks into the river.
As it is, we spend the time more productively with our studies: reading, mathematics, geography, spelling….you know–school stuff. To that mix there are a couple of study books in which Zoë is to complete daily lessons. Her only task is to make sure she brings the books home each night so that she can complete the lessons and return them to school the next morning to be checked.
Zoë has yet to embrace the significance of her daily shuttle missions and on more than one occasion forgotten the books at school. According to her detention slip–4 times. Seems her teacher was counting. (I know. It really seems pretty benign but there are rules…..sigh)
So my little girl, my trail blazer, my rebel is scheduled to serve her first detention. (Notice I said first. There will be more–of this I feel certain.) True to form, though, detention is just one more check on Zoë’s Great List of Adventures.
She was busy yesterday evening making wardrobe plans for the next dress down day. I told her that maybe she shouldn’t be so hasty there as if she recalls she had just informed me she was serving detention. Maybe there should be some consequences to that.
“But, Dad,” she said smiling, almost giddy. “There’s not. I just get to sit with the teachers for a while after school!”
I love that she is excited to go to detention!
I have a big issue with kids under the age of 11 being set homework. I see unpleasant conflicts with teachers in my future
Oh my. The back of my neck is cramping. Daily homework? Detention? For an 8yo. Oh my.
I KNEW the Manning Rebel side was STRONG in that one!
The smile grew as I read this knowing full well that Zoe would be just fine with detention, even “giddy” as you put it.
You’ll have to give us an update after time is served.
I had detention once. The teacher was a pushover and I ended up playing Uno with a couple friends for the hour.
Let’s hope a lesson is learned here . . . and I’m open to hearing more about your homework routine . . .
zak–I honestly can not think of anything that she does not get excited about—maybe cleaning the playroom.
Dan–I see them in my present!
Imp–It’s worse–she also has to squeeze in piano lessons.
Vicki–See! I keep telling Maura the stubborn comes from her side of the family. Wait…you said rebel. That means stubborn, right?
Chuck–I honestly wish I could be there. I won’t get nearly as good (or accurate) a report from Zoe.
tysdaddy–I fear there will be no learning from this. That’s just Zoe.
I like your blog! I just wish I didn’t have to click through to read the rest of each post. I had the same problem with newspapers. I never felt like hunting down the follow up page.
My mother tells a story of me from kindergarten when I came home extremely excited to announce that I FINALLY got to sit in the timeout chair.
It wasn’t my last time either.
Piano lesson too! I’m going to have nightmares where John Holt is chasing me and throwing books at me again.
In Kindergarten our teacher would “spank” you on your birthday. I was upset because my b-day was during summer break. Ummm…nevermind.
LuckyME–Sorry about that. It was a setting in my feeds. I think it’s fixed.
Matthew–You’ve got to have a zest for life, I suppose.
Imp–Would it help if I told you we cut out ballet, gymnastics and soccer??
Just tell her to stay away from Judd Nelson. He can’t be trusted.
Man, I so wanted to work him into the post–I just couldn’t find the angle. If Judd shows up–he’s a gonner! (And her.)