Spencer, Spencer, Spencer!

The kids need some bikes. All of our bikes never did make it on the boat to come over here. And they are extremely expensive here in Germany compared to in America. I have been trying real hard to buy the kids some bikes on Ebay. It was getting real frustrating for awhile because at the last minute, we would get beat out and lose the auction. I should not even say at the last minute. It is more like the last second. There are HUGE bidding wars here during the last 30 seconds. It is crazy. But we finally won a bike for Shantal. It costs 44 Euros. And we got to pick it up on Saturday. She loves it and is so happy to have a bike again.

Hannah got her bike over a week ago. So that just leaves Spencer who has needed a bike. He feels left out as everytime he wants to ride Shantal's or Hannah's, they get mad and say No. Somehow, what I say does not matter because I said he could ride them anyway. Well, I found a few good bikes and the auctions ended yesterday. I actually won one of the auctions at 1:30 in the afternoon and only paid 17 Euros for it. I was totally excited. But I had another auction out there that ended at 10:30pm. This is the bike that Spencer REALLY wanted. I put a maximum bid of 30 Euros on there thinking I would never win it. Guess what, we won that auction as well. So now, we have 2 bikes for Spencer. He is so happy. More happy that he got the bike he wanted, not that he has two bikes. He keeps saying to me today that it is not fair that he has 2 bikes and the girls only have one. So only one will be for him and the other one for that family. That is my boy thinking about everyone else!

Well, this same boy is having problems in Church. He goes to a kids class at church called Primary. He is in an English speaking class (I don't know why they have it because all the kids in there can speak German). And Shantal is also in this class. There are a lot of kids. Well, I've heard from his teacher on many occasions that he has a little too much energy. Can I please talk to him to get him to settle down. He won't sit on his seat. He is constantly up and down. And then he consistantly talks out of turn. Those are the things she says to me. Well, she gives the class candy bars when they pass off what is called Articles of Faith. She told me that she would not be giving anymore to Spencer if he does not settle down. So she came up with a plan. She was going to give him 3 chances. She would make a mark on the chalkboard so only he knew what it meant without embarrasing him in class. And if he got 3 marks on any given sunday, then he would miss out on the next candy bar he earns. Spencer did not like this plan at all, but he knew about it. I had not been to church in a few weeks since I was so sick. But every week, I asked him if he got any marks on the chalkboard. The answer was always no.

Well, Yesterday, I went to church again. He came into Sacrament Meeting all angry. I asked him what was wrong and he told me that he passed off his Article of Faith but she would not be giving him a candy bar because he was so bad in class. But then he told me there was never any marks on the chalkboard. And she also threatened to put one on the chalkboard in front of the whole class and they all started laughing at him.

I was not happy. So when the teacher approached me JUST AS THE MEETING WAS ABOUT TO START, I simply said, You did not follow the plan. You never put the marks on the chalkboard. She then told me she gave him more than 10 warnings. That was enough. And then she asked me to start coming into the class with him. I said I could not because I already am busy during that time. Between Hannah, Emma and Ian, I don't have time. She then asked me to talk to Spencer again. I told her I don't know what good that will do. We've done that before. And to me, the biggest problem is, she deviated from the plan SHE made.

I know Spencer can be a handful. And I know he has a lot of energy. I am all for discipline. I am all for trying to get him to help the rest of the class be able to learn without so many disruptions. But when the teacher can not do her part in keeping to the plan of how to handle the situations, what am I supposed to do?