It was boring.

These three little words are the words I've dreaded hearing from Parker since school has started. For 139 days he didn't even hint at being bored at school. But yesterday while having a snack after school in the school yard, when I asked him what he learned in school that day, he said,

"Remember when you told me about that day when you walked by the first grade class and they were learning what quarter to 3 was on a clock? Well that was what we did today, but we didn't do quarter to. We just did o'clock and half past. It was really boring."

FUCK!

I asked him if he told Miss Heather that he already knew that and he said, "I don't like to tell her that, Mom." Which I suppose is good. I said, "Hmmm. I'll be right back."

I went back into the classroom and relayed the whole story to Miss Heather. She said, "Well, I'm impressed it took 139 days to get there. I thought it would have happened a while ago."

I asked her if she could do some advanced time stuff with him, but as soon as I said it, I realized how silly it sounded. The kid can tell time...there is no advanced time telling skills he needs. We agreed he would work on some other math stuff during that lesson, but only if 1) the kids didn't notice and/or make fun of him and 2) it didn't become a disruption. I said if either thing happened, he would just have to be bored.

I find out today how that approach worked.

And in other Parker makes mommy nervous news....
I stopped by today to drop of the snack and they were doing the "calendar" where the kids say the months of the year, the days of the week, etc, etc. For every question, Parker raised his hand. Other kids did too and almost every one of them got the answer wrong. She would try 3 or 4 kids before finally going to Parker to get the right answer. But when he gave the right answer, he did it in a silly voice. It was a little obnoxious. I wasn't happy.

I'm sure all you teachers and grandparents and parents of similar children out there are shaking your heads at me. I'm sure I'm going about all this wrong, but who the fuck knows what to do. I'll be so happy when Miranda and Elizabeth start and are just part of the pack learning their days of the week and getting the answers wrong.