Wednesday, June 15, 2005

Last Days of School

This is the last week of school for my older two boys. We also have the added bonus of two hour early release on the last three days. In addition the various grades, K-5, are having their end of the year parties and picnics. Today I got to go to the third grade pizza picnic and tomorrow Nate’s kindergarten class is having a pizza party. Precious little education is occurring this week at school.

On Monday morning Nate announced that he did not feel well and wanted to stay home. Since I knew he wouldn’t be missing anything and he had just gone to the doctor’s office for strep throat on Saturday, I thought why not. Let him stay home for a change. I called the school to tell them that Nate would be staying home. Then it was time to take Jake to the bus. After Jake boarded the bus we headed home. Back inside Max and Rebecca returned to their breakfast. While I was tending to the dynamic duo Nate disappeared. A few minutes later I saw him walking towards the garage door buckling on his bike helmet.

What are you doing?” I demanded in a slightly perplexed tone of voice.

“I’m going to ride my bike.” He answered in a cheerful and direct manner.

“Oh no, you don’t. If you are staying home sick you are NOT going for a bike ride. You are staying inside and you are not going anywhere.”

“Oh.”

“If you want to ride your bike I can drive you to school right now. You can go biking after you get home from school. Do you want me to drive you to school now?”

“Um, no. I think I’ll just stay inside.”


And that was it. He did ask about the pool later in the day, but I told him if you are too sick to go to school you are too sick to go to the pool.

Now I must admit I was a bit stunned at how he just assumed he could go for a bike ride. He really was amazed when I stopped him. After that my goal was to make this the most boring day in his life. I think I was pretty successful. He only got to watch TV during Max’s physical therapy and it was a show that Max selected. Everything we did was geared for 3 year olds. I told him he could do fun things tomorrow, but only if he went to school. At bed time he told his father that he was going to school the next day.

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