What's it going to take for you to stay in school?

That apparently was the talk J's Chemistry teacher was trying to have with her Thursday, her first day back after battling a 102 degree temp. and a sinus infection for four days.

Jennifer called me at 8:30 am that morn (I was going into work late)and I could tell she was crying.

"What's us," says I, wondering how thing could have gone so wrong in the first half-hour of the school day.

Apparently the Chemistry teacher, who has a rep for being a little PMSy, took Jennifer aside, asked her about the absences and all the times she'd been gone during the year.

"All the times?"

Opening up her class calendar page, she pointed out where Jennifer had been absent 36 days since September.

I personally was speechless, and I knew she hadn't been gone that long or that much. But then the truth came out. Each time she missed an entire day, that counts as 6 absences (one per class) and each time she was late to first period (yes, I know, some of that is my bad for letting us stop by Starbucks first) that too was counted as a full absence in her book.

"But you're getting an A in her class," I sputtered.

SHe told the same tale to her dad, who promptly (after I proofed it) shot of an e-mail to said teacher saying in essence - look, our daughter is a straight A student who happens to love science..what's up? Let's talk.

We got a short reply back saying that Jennifer didn't seem to want to do the catch up homework, which again seemed in error, as she brought it home last night.

To be continued....

Studying Chemistry huh?

My daughter had gone home with a friend last night, and about 6 pm, asked me to call her dad (her phone had died), to pick her up later. She and Ashley were in the midst of studying their chemistry homework and didn't want to break the flow.

I was monitoring a memorial services at PLU for the four slain police officers, so I "sure, fine, whatevered" her off the phone, and then dialed Gary. He was just pulling in Ashley's driveway and was in no mood to come back. What he did find when he knocked was that the girls were indeed studying chemistry, but not one she was going to have to pass to get an A in that class. Two boys had dropped by. They were chatting in the living room, and the chemistry books were forgotten in the kitchen.

Gary was so pissed he wanted to ground her and called (again interrupting the prayer service) to see what i thought. I hissed through the phone to ground her if he must, and give her a lecture on lying (if it's boys, say so) but I had to go.

He called back again to say he planned to jerk her chain, pretend she was grounded and then let her off the hook...this time. Fine, whatever..I'm about ready to ground you both or block you if you call again.

Digging herself out of a hole

Next time I might think twice before allowing J to be sick for 4 days (as if I had a choice), It's only now, a week later, that she's taking her last make up test. And some of the teachers are grumpy about it, some aren't.

Current events

It's 10:15 pm, and I'm helping Jennifer with her homework. I'm beginning to wonder whether advanced AP classes and sports are going to work.

To this point, she still has 3 trig problems to work out (sorry, this late at night, I'm useless at this). But I can help with current events. I'm still a news junkie. So now their are going into the Great Depression, and she needs a world event that's related to discuss. I find her something on financial reforms.

She gives me a puzzled look.

"OK, it's mainly saying you can't make loans to folks who KNOW are going to default," I said.
"If that hadn't happened, I doubt we'd be in a depression now."

She gets it. Good. We can go to bed.

Homework

It's gotten to the point that unless the homework is done, no shopping, no friends over, and no hanging out with friends. Period.

Homework, dishes

Jennifer's doing homework again, and probably will be until 9 pm tonight. So I'll probably end up doing the dishes again.

I remember that somehow, when I was a teenager, I managed to do both. I'm trying to decide if she has more homework or I'm just a softer touch than my mom was. Probably a mixture of both.

Homework? Yeah, guess I"d better do that.

After 2.5 weeks out of school, Jennifer announced she has some homework she has to finish this weekend. Great. So when Gary and I clean up the house tomorrow - getting the rest of the needles out - she'll be reading and doing a book report on the Odyssey.

Peregrine falcons or army men?

That was the dilemma facing me as my daughter looked up at me pleadingly last night.

I had just come to pick here up at her best friend's house after work, and she and N. were working furiously on a history project showing the battle of Gettysburg. Could I please, please, please go out and get some of the Army men (Toy Story style) to represent the Union and Rebel troops. I had planned to go to the Rainier Audubon Society's cookie swap and peregrine falcon lecture.

But she needed a good grade on this after flaming out on her video assignment (see earlier post) of which she received a C because it wasn't edited enough and she wouldn't allow her father to touch it. So, back to the falcons versus Army men choice.

I chose the Army men, and drove off to K-Mart and the Dollar Store. K-Mart was a bust, but fortunately there were four bags of these guys, complete with bazookas, left. I took two, and then was stuck at the cash-only check out line rummaging around for my last $2 in change.

The clerk gave me a rather odd look as I paid for the rest in dimes.

"I hope she does well on her map," she called to me as I rushed out the door, back to the bf's house.

This morning, we were rushing around, J. had come down with a cough and a cold and we were late, as usual, in rushing out the door. Just as we pulled up to school, I turned and said "Did you bring your Army guys?"

Her look said it all. Of course not.

Homework battles. Are they worth the fight?

In the end, she just handed in the film to her social studies teacher and figured he could download and watch their video production.

My daughter and her group had flamed out of writing the script (received and F, and told to rewrite it). So they did, and then when it came time to download their next Sundance nominee, they couldn't figure out how to get it out of the camera to the DVD.

Now my husband has spent the last 30 years in television, and could have probably done this entire procedure in 20 minutes, if that. But no. She didn't want to go down to KOMO. She didn't want to bring her friends. She didn't want to be set up in a professional editing room, with Gary's promises he'd leave her alone.

Some of this is inevitable, since Gary has a tendency to take over a project (maps, science, math, you name it). He cedes the writing and art to me, my fortes. But our daughter doesn't want him helping her with homework anymore, even when it means that she would benefit from his help.

Argh.

I hate homework. And apparently, so do other parents.