Wow. I can’t believe it!

Son#1 and his friends are into the home stretch of their school careers.
Good luck you guys xxx

PWN THOSE EXAMS!

Back left to right:  Son#2, moi, Son#1
Front: good friends, all grown up.

Son#1 stands proudly
(read: highly embarrassed – Mom, HURRY UP and take the damn picture before someone SEES!)
in front of his matric art exhibition, for which he was awarded 3rd place and
received a brilliant A!

I’m so proud of you, my baby

WELL DONE!

I’m ridiculously proud of that boy – he’s doing SO damn well

He showed me his first set of marks for the year and although he’s a bit miffed about narrowly missing out on a B aggregate, I’m crazy happy with his results!! (He was above average on everything, apart from Geography and Science, which means he just needs to put in some more study time.)

He’s working hard and he’s keeping up with the rigorous Grade 12 schedule – that’s totally awesome considering that last year was just about a write-off for him school-wise.

WELL DONE BABY!

XXX

(You can read about that here)

Anyway, the deal is that he’s going to get a written warning from them tomorrow, detention on Friday, and he’s going to have one of his privileges taken away – and they’ve gone for the jugular here: he has to cut his hair!!!

I am SO flipping relieved that he’s not going to be expelled!

What does Son#2 think of it?

“NO!! NOT MY HAIR!?!? I’d rather be expelled.”

Yip, the little man sure loves his long locks but hellz bellz, a haircut over getting expelled? That’s a no brainer.

Take the haircut and RUN my boy!

*whew*

WTF?

He’s throwing his education away – I wouldn’t be surprised if they now expel him.

And after last night’s ugly fallout with Son#1, I’m actually ready to throw in the towel. Motherhood can take a flying leap. I’ve had it.

So … an update on Son#2 and it’s sad news I’m afraid.

He has not passed Grade 8.

Yeah, his headmaster called me yesterday to tell me and the X and I went through to the school to meet with him today to discuss the issue and decide what to do. No, that was *not* an easy meeting!

I think the headmaster was really concerned that the X and I would fight against Son#2 repeating the grade, but we both feel strongly that he needs to be kept back. It wasn’t a close thing either. He’s done very badly this year …

We’re sending him to an educational psychologist for a full assessment and arranging for various therapies to help him. And things at home (both the X’s and mine) are going to have to change a bit to provide him with more structure. Eish.

He really loves his school – he’s so happy there and he’s come out of his shell completely over the last year, perhaps a bit too much – he’s gone from zero to hero amongst his peers and lost focus on the reason why he is there in the first place. He’s starting to get into trouble and display some rather dodgy behaviour that’s concerning us all – even Son#1. Actually, Son#1 is VERY upset about all of this and has read his little brother the riot act!

And the headmaster, who is a STUNNING guy, has tried to chat to Son#2 on numerous occasions but, like the rest of us, he’s not connecting at all. This boy just shuts down, he gives NOTHING away and you just cannot read him at all. It’s most distressing and frustrating.

So that’s where we are. It hasn’t been an easy 2 days at all but we’ll get through it. Son#2 is spending tonight with the X and he is going break the news to him. We have no idea how he’ll react. He’ll either get terribly upset and break down, or he’ll just dismiss it and pretend nothing’s wrong. It could go wither way …

Oh man, this is the last thing I wanted for him and it breaks my heart but in all honesty, if he’s not doing the work and not coping, then he must stay back and learn from his mistakes.