Big Fry

My big fry is going to drive me crazy! As we head into the second half of 5th grade I am getting more terrified of middle school. The kid is seriously moving backwards in the organization and school motivation department. He is continuously forgetting things that he needs for studying, getting discouraged when the assignment is hard AND when he doesn't bring the necessary materials home, and snappy when I try to help. Case in point, he tells me TODAY he needs materials for a scrapbook binder due on Tuesday-AFTER we had looked on the teacher's website and saw it was due-UMMMM was he going to tell me this on his own?? He enjoys getting good grades and is very proud of it. Of couse we have the usual "spring" parent teacher conference-for those select few students that teachers feel they need to absolutely meet with. (And not surprising small fry does NOT have a conference). His midterm stated "no academic or work skill concerns at this time" yet we are still meeting. Who knows. His level of rude tone and even a little absolute refusal is getting past the annoying stage. This weekend we have put the foot down and every rude remark, eye roll, whine is answered with a loss of privilege-the big one being a sleepover he really want to have tomorrow. As of right now it is no go and when he gets the final answer tomorrow it is going to UGLY, but my guess is a lesson well learned. We will see...