Thrid Grade is Torture

I’ve decided that the sole existence of the third grade is to torture parents. Especially torture parents of kids that are “quirky” and require a certain amount of routine. Third grade has also enlisted the help of El Niño to be sure of my untimely demise.

First we have two hour delays as a result of the first round of snow. Thankfully the bulk of it occurred over a weekend, so no school days were lost. A few days later, we got another apocalyptic (at least for this area) snow storm. I’d even classify this second one as a blizzard since we had the winds for it. Once again things were shut down. Not only was EVERYTHING closed, but the kids were out of school for parent conferences. There was a scheduled six day weekend. SIX DAYS! Do they know what these breaks do to me?Add on to that there was NOWHERE to go to get out of the house and an eight year old who thinks it’s his sole purpose in life to annoy his three year old brother. I’m amazed I wasn’t in the corner rocking and muttering to myself.

Not only are the kids off from Wednesday through Monday, but they have homework. Not just any homework – a book report. Do they know how hard it is to get my kid with Asperger’s to sit down and draw a detailed and colorful picture of the book for the cover, and then write a description of the book? Details are not this kid’s forte. And to top it all off, it has to be done neatly. Have they not seen his handwriting? On writing assignments, the kids can get up to three points for handwriting. For Zach to get a two is just as good as him getting a three. He usually gets zeros and ones.

We did the book report. He had to make revisions and redo parts of it no less than four times. By the end of the whole process I felt like I’d rather undergo waterboarding, and it’s still only a good enough product.

After being snowed in with a kid who needs routine that is out of his routine, and doing that book report, I can’t wait for school on Tuesday. Of course we’re due to get more snow that our forecast labels as anything from, and I quote “plowable amounts” to 1-3″. Please let there be school all week. We need our routine back.

Related posts:

1. Let the Torture Begin
2. No School???? What???!!!!
3. But the Full Moon Isn’t for 2 More Days
4. Stalemate
5. It’s Monday

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