Second Debate

The first debate this year must have been uneventful as Christopher didn't mention anything about it.

But this past week, he had his second debate. He had to memorize his part. While this sounded more like a short speech to me, he insisted he was giving a debate.

So Friday rolled around and as we drove to school, Christopher continued to talk about how he wished he didn't have to give the speech. He even suggested going to his debate class for tutoring and giving the speech to his teacher.

I talked through the look over their heads, make eye contact with someone nice, take a deep breath stuff and I don't know if he was convinced. I did tell him to pray and said I would to. He mentioned there was a girl in his class who didn't even want to go to the front of the room she was so nervous. I said he could be a good support for her.

The day goes by and I hope everything went well.

I picked him up and he said he did his debate went good. He did it. He also said the girl who was nervous managed to give her speech in front of the class, too.

Whew.

Agenda

At the beginning of the school year, we buy an agenda. It is a spiral-bound book that includes each week of school with blanks to fill in for homework.

This year, Christopher has decided not to fill in the blanks in his agenda. His reason -- he'll remember his assignments.

Yet, this week, we've had a few forgotten assignments. He remembers either at 8:30 p.m. or at 7:15 a.m. This morning was quite a mess. As I was going through his backpack, out came a sheet of paper with eight math word problems. There were no answers . .he had not done the work. So, he hurriedly tried to finish before he and Gervais left at 7:30 a.m. Then, he went to tutoring. Math paper was turned in incomplete.

The agenda blank for math . . . was blank.

3 times 4 is what . . .

We are big time in fractions. Yuck. Thank goodness Gervais is home to help Christopher.

I think I've heard the question 3 times 4 equals what about seven times. Ironically, Christopher has said the answer is seven a few times.

He's tired . ..

First Football Game and a PAL

1 - 0

First game, chalk it up as a win. Harris played Driscoll today and both the white and dark team one. Christopher plays on the purple team. He started on offense and on the kick-off team. He didn't play defense, which was hard for him, because his best buddy moved to his team and started over him. Ouch. He had a great game and I know the coaches saw him make some great tackles. He has instinct that few kids have. He knows how to play. I think eventually he will be playing defense.

And, he was nominated by his art teacher for the Outstanding Achievement Award. Each week two Harris students get to go to Madison High School football games and are honored by the high school PALs (peer assistant leaders). Hopefully, he will be selected.

He's such a great kid, great football player and a great PAL.

Quiet

I know Christopher is headed toward puberty. He will eventually get there and all those changes I've heard about, read about and watched movies about will occur.

But I'm not ready. I still want him to be my little boy who still says "mama" every so sweetly when he is tired. I want him to still wave to me when he is around his friends. And, I want him to quite simply want to be with me.

All that requires us spending time together -- which is hard these days. Between football practice, taking care of the girls and just life, he and I sometimes say only a few words to each other.

Like tonight. He's been quiet in his room while I've been busy around the house getting things ready. I think that quiet thing is part of puberty, but is it also part of him still being my little boy. He's quiet that way -- can be by himself. He's always been able to do that. He can go into his room and draw or write or just sit and look around. I want that to continue, of course, because I like the quiet and so does my husband. But I don't want it to be quiet because he doesn't want to talk to me or because he doesn't want to be with me.

I like the quiet, but I don't know if the quiet will always be the right quiet.

Scrimmage by Jill

Today, Christopher played in his first school football game. It was a scrimmage, but a game nonetheless.

He started at cornerback. He did great! He's one of the smallest kids out there so he automatically gets assigned to cornerback and wide receiver. The good news is he can really play so he's out there!

His quarterback only passed two times -- not a single time to Christopher, but he blocked well.

We didn't get home until about 7 p.m. . . so game days will be long days.

Scrimmage by Chris

I scrimmaged today. I started at cornerback.

It was good. I had a tackle, almost an interception and a broken up pass.

Greenback Night

The PTA puts on a 30-minute meeting and then asks for money. All the while, parents are anxiously waiting for 6:30 p.m. so that the tour the classes portion of the program can begin.

I skipped the PTA meeting to avoid the anxiousness . . . and yet, I still managed to be late to Christopher's first period class. A habit repeating itself from high school!

First period: Art. Our friend teaches the class. She's exuberant and excited about Art. Christopher loves art and quite frankly, loves her! There is a chance for him to be in National Art Junior Honor Society. Field trips, special contests, etc. . . .

Second period: Reading. The teacher seems great. She provided us the names of the books he will read this year -- we will be buying those to reinforce class activities at home.

Third period: Debate. Again, the teacher seems to know her stuff. This may be a struggle for Christopher. He's not big on presenting and that's pretty much what debate is all about. She was excited about UIL competition -- don't think my child will be participating.

Fourth period: Athletics. At last, the place where my son feels most at home. The gym. The field.

Fifth period: English. Christopher's favorite teacher! She does seem fun and determined to make learning the subject an adventure!

Sixth period: Science. A favorite class of Christopher's because of the big project this year -- dissecting a frog!

Seventh period: Math PreAP. Fractions galore right now, but he's doing eighth grade work.

Eighth period: Texas History. The teacher is on fire for history. She seems good -- can make studying history interesting.

All teachers have tutoring and all limit the amount of homework. Really, math is the only class that will regularly have homework.

And, I forgot to turn in my greenback envelope. Wasn't that the point of greenback night?!

Math Homework

So far, the math homework has been the repeat offender.

Fractions to percents to decimals and the other night, the teacher threw in square roots. Is the proper name "radical." That was on the worksheet. Yes, I believe math to be radical. So radical -- I can't figure it out.

But finally, we had a breakthrough. Last night's homework was easily completed by Christopher.

We now know 1/8 equals 12.5% and 1/9 equals 11 percent. We are on a roll.

Radical.