Caleb's School Update

WOW!!! We have been having MAJOR attitude problems with Caleb. I fear this may be the beginning of adolescence, and I fear even more that one of us may not survive it!!!

This has been a growing problem, but ever since the Labor Day trip (which I forgot to post about - I will do that one next) it has been extremely bad! He got back from his kayaking trip with Papa and Daddy and he was tired and moody. We were going to go eat Chinese for dinner. Caleb wanted tacos and started throwing a fit. By the time we got to the car, he was hitting his brothers for no reason and just being rude. I told him to go to his room while I got everyone loaded and ready to go. He went in.

Paul went to his room to tell him to straighten up and get in the car. He said he wasn't going and we couldn't make him. We left him!!

When we got home he had DESTROYED his room. He had thrown stuff everywhere and tore his bed apart. I saw it, turned around and closed the door. It was a LONG weekend with him, and he was only here a day and a half!

Well, last week I got a phone call from a friend saying that Caleb had said a bad word!! I talked to him, he said that he said ass to someone else. I talked to him about it and told him why we don't say those words. That was the end of it.

Friday morning, we are running around taking care of errands so we could go have lunch with the kids. We were going to have to be there for awhile because they don't eat lunch at the same time. I got a call from his teacher on MY CELL PHONE!!! That is serious! She said that he had called some kids jerks and it made her remembered that earlier in the week a student had told her that Caleb had said a bad word, but she was told after Caleb had been picked up.

So we picked Caleb up from school for lunch and went and had a talk! He said that he is bored at school, and he doesn't get to read as much as he wants too. I told him that he HAD to learn other subjects and if he would come home and finish homework in a timely manner, he could read as long as he wanted!!

I went and talked to his teacher. She said that he only gets in trouble when he finishes his work and has nothing to do. He is allowed to read and write when he finishes his work, but apparantly that is not enough!! I told her if she had anymore problems to send him straight to the principal and that he knew that the principal had permission to paddle him. He is LITERALLY one mistake away from a paddling!

Paul apparantly was a frequent visitor to his principal at Caleb's age, with frequent paddlings!! I asked Paul when he grew out of it. He said FIFTH GRADE!!! I don't think I can handle two+ years of this!!!

He has had some major chores he gets to do when he is done with homework! He is not really enjoying that (and he shouldn't at this point!). He thinks it is unfair that he has to do more/harder chores than his brothers. I was quick to point out that he was much older than them, and he did not have to do hard chores when he was their age!