Monday, October 5, 2009

Tales from Middle School

My oldest son started middle school this year. He is in fifth grade and due to large enrollments in each grade level, fifth grade is now housed with the 6th, 7th, and 8th graders in the middle school. I’m not thrilled about fifth graders being with eighth graders, but I do know he can handle it. My husband and I even had “The Talk” with him before school started. I was afraid of what he might hear on the bus, and I just wanted to make sure he had the correct information. “The Talk” was slightly embarrassing, but it actually went quite well. We went through a pamphlet we got from the Mayo Clinic about puberty and went from there. Except for a few inappropriate comments from my husband (which is expected), we had a very good discussion.
Due to being the youngest in the school now, J-Man was a little nervous the first few weeks of school, but he seems to be taking it in stride now.
Here are a few conversations from the first few weeks of middle school.
Day One:
J-Man: “The eighth graders are HUGE! They are so tall!”
(And this is coming from J-Man who is one of the youngest yet tallest in his grade.)
Week One:
J-Man: “Mom! An 8th grader told me he liked my shirt today!” See shirt in picture. And now this is the shirt most frequently worn by J-Man this school year.
Week Two:
J-Man: “Mom, I accidentally tripped an 8th grader going down the stairs today!”
Mom: “Oh, no! Did you say you were sorry? What did you do?”
J-Man: “No, I ran!”
Week Three:
J-Man: “Mom, an 8th grader sat on the bus with me today.”
Mom: “So, did he talk to you?”
J-Man: “Yeah!”
Mom: “What did he say?”
J-Man: “Well, the bus started moving so he had to sit down quickly, and he sat in my seat. He said, “ I’m just going to sit here until the bus stops again.”
Mom: “What did you say?”
J-Man: “Nothing. I scooted closer to the window!”

My sweet little fifth grader.

Today’s tune for Tuesday is by Disturbed. The band from my son’s now most prized t-shirt. Disturbed is a successful rock band from Chicago. Their most famous song is probably 2001’s “Down with the Sickness.” My husband and I saw them live at Ozzfest in 2006, they were really great live! Here is a video from their most recent album, Indestructible. My son just bought this CD, but there are a few inappropriate songs on it, so I had to import it on my computer then burn him a CD with 9/12 songs on it. “Inside the Fire” is a number one hit from this album and is today's tune. And I've only let J-Man watch the first half of this video, the end is a little gruesome...but perfect for the month of October.