Teacher Time

Our daughter arrived home from school on Thursday and something on her face told me there was real trouble.  She mentioned in passing that she had to stay in at PE because she lost her math work. She showed me a fancy paper airplane she made for her grandparents who were arriving that afternoon from IL.  From the look of it- and knowing my daughter- I knew she put a LOT of time into making that airplane and my heart dropped.  I asked her as we walked back from her bus stop when she made this?  "Student time" was her quick answer.  I had my doubts.  What did that mean for the other work she should have been working on.  All questions were answered as soon as I opened her day planner from school.  The teacher had written in red ink (instant indication that something was wrong):

"S had a very difficult day today.  I had to remind her almost constantly to get to work and be on task.  She was drawing and cutting during teacher time :("

Her school has three times of day.  Teacher time, student time, and work time.  She used teacher time to make her paper airplane (and likely the rest of the day!).

I told her to read the note from her teacher--  She looked at me like a deer in headlights... Busted.  Caught. Found Out.  She lied.  She looked remorseful, but only slightly. 

Thoughts of counseling flooded my brain and I knew she needed chores to pay restitution for lying to me.  She had to clean the art table and pick up dog poop in our back yard.  She was not happy, but knew why she was faced with those tasks.  Over the weekend we addressed (many times!) the reasons why her actions- not attending during teacher time and lying to me- were inappropriate. 

As a means to make restitution to her teacher, I instructed her to ask her teacher if she could help her with any little jobs during her student time... give up her free time to help since she wasted the teacher's time on Thursday.  When I would rehearse with her what she needed to say to her teacher this morning she kept conveniently forgetting to add that part.  She had the apology down cold.  She remembered to say she felt bad about wasting the teacher's time... But she consistently forgot to add the part about giving up her free time to help.  When I asked her about that, she said she forgot.  Lie. Sighs. 

SO, we will see how her day went today.  I am not a liar.  I never found the thrill or benefit in lying so it is really hard to know what to do when she starts to lie.  Is it a phase?  Cellular memory?  A bratty :) 9 year old habit?

We will see.  Stay tuned.

Do we still love her? OF COURSE.  Unconditionally.  Is she making me gray? Yep. :) Still, God is good.  All the time!