Thursday, 13 September 2007

Getting Better All the Time

While I can't say that Brendan is making any more male friends, except for the fact that he's observing them and bringing home funny stories, the females are starting to notice my handsome son.

Last week when Brendan was waiting (alone) for the first period bell to ring, a group of girls approached (they always seem to travel in packs) and asked him his name. He said, "Brendan." They said, "Cool name," and left.

I just found out that there will be a school dance on October 26, for which they need chaperones. Evidently, the girls are already angling for dates. One girl, sitting next to Brendan after school waiting in the parent pick-up line, casually mentioned that two boys had already asked her to the dance, but they were weird. She wanted someone who wasn't weird to ask her. (Hint, hint!) Today, this girl, who's name has escaped Brendan so far, asked him if he would like to go to the dance with her. He said, "I don't know."

Scintilating conversations, huh? To his credit, he didn't run away scream, "No, way!" like I half-expected he would do. But now I wonder if he's trying to figure out how to back out gracefully because he doesn't want to go to the dance or he doesn't want to go with her.

I would love to be a fly on the wall for this one. Maybe I'll volunteer just in case he decides to go. BTW - should an 11-yearl-old be taking a date to the dance?!

Thursday, 6 September 2007

Moral Dilemma

Moms, sound off on this one.

Brendan is a very conscientious boy. He's especially sensitive these last few weeks because of the start of school. I could tell something was wrong after school yesterday, but he didn't let it out until this morning. The school run is his favorite time for backseat confessions. I think it's because he doesn't have to look me in the eye.

What was the problem? Brendan had graded his own paper on a History exercise. He realized after he reported his grade and the teacher had entered it into the computer that there were two other questions that should have been counted wrong. This teacher is know for being tough, even mean, and I think Brendan had just recently heard the "If you get caught cheating, you can be expelled from school" speech.

So his dilemma was whether to tell this mean lady who might chew his head off or just drop it.

UGH! What's Mom to do? Grades are a new thing to him. British school doesn't stress grades at all. This was one in-class grade, one amongst many and my first instinct was to forget about it. But he was really worried. What would you do?

Well, I didn't tell him what he should do. I just laid out his options. I told him that the honest thing to do was to tell the teacher that he'd made a mistake and take the punishment, whatever that might be. The other option was to do nothing, let it go. I have a feeling that this teacher is really not as mean as she seems. She's put on her first-week-of-school face to enforce discipline. I think that if he confessed, she'd either say it was okay and not change the grade in the system, or at worst, change the grade. Of course, I don't know the lady. She could take the hard-nose approach and say that this is strike one and if he messes up again, he'll be in trouble.

It will be interesting to see which path he takes. I have a feeling his conscience won't let him forget about it, but if he has to confess to Ms. Meanie, he may just let it be. Stay tuned.

Wednesday, 5 September 2007

Meet Jack

I got approval to use the image that you'll see on the competition site on my own blog. I just had to show it to you. I'm really happy with the way he turned out. He's a real character with real expression. This is not the entire image - justa teaser so you'll go to www. ABCbookcompetition.org and vote.

If I win, I'll have four more unique pumpkin characters, the farmer, his wife, his daughter, his grandson and a pig to create. I'm very excited about the possibilities, so please help make this a reality. Go vote between 16 and 30 September.

I'll remind you again as the time gets closer.