The RED card

The dreaded RED card.  Abraham has a fantastic kindergarten teacher.  She definitely has her hands full; I couldn't possibly do it...give me room full of teenagers, but a room full of five year olds?!  Yikes.  She has implemented a new policy for her class, mostly due to, I'm afraid, Abraham and his little buddies.  There are now three cards.  Green, yellow, and red.  The green card is the one you start out with at the beginning of the day.  Your first warning and you get that taken away and replaced with a yellow.  Yellow causes you to miss a bit of recess.  And  mom has to sign it.  If you get in trouble again, you get a red card.  This means that you miss all of recess and of course mom has to sign it and receives a phone call home. 

The day before she set the new policy in place, she sent a letter home along with an email explaining the new system.  Abraham and I sat down and discussed these different options and what would happen at home.  We, as a general rule, don't allow Nintendo on school nights.  It is too distracting for us.  However, Bram LOVES Nintendo.  So, I told him that if he brings home a green slip, when he gets his chores done, he can play Nintendo.  Yellow comes home and the rule stands...no Nintendo.  If a red comes home, he loses Nintendo for two weeks.  For him, that is severe punishment. 

The next day is a Thursday.  Abraham comes home with a green!  Yea!  Good for him.  It has a sticker, the date, etc on it.  He is very proud and hurries through his laundry to get to the game.  The next afternoon, Friday, he comes home with another green.  This one is slightly different, and I am puzzled by it.  There is no sticker, date, or anything.  Just the photocopy green paper.  Hmmm.  But, even though I don't, I try to believe him.  The weekend progresses and we are flyng around.  Sunday afternoon rolls around.  I receive a phone call from his teacher.  Who is on my speed dial. 

"Sarah, just checking in to see if Abraham told you yet about the red card?"

"Red card?  He didn't receive a green one?  That is the one he brought home...although is wasn't initialled by you or dated/stickered..."

"Oh, no.  He got his green taken from him.  Let's see, I have it written down.  He couldn't keep his hands to himself and was not paying attention."

"Oh, well, that's interesting.  Hmmm.  Apparently he picked the green one up off the floor and brought that one home instead.  Ok, thanks so much for your phone call.  I need to go find Abraham."  I'm thinking he's dead...It was not a pleasant conversation for my young son.  He once again had to learn the difference between one punishment and two.  One for getting a red, (losing Nintendo for two weeks) and two for lying about it.  You would think that after multiple times of this happening, you would stop LYING!  He did however ask if his daddy could administer the spanking.  I asked him why.  He said "Because daddy's don't hurt!"  Nice. 

I have to say, the Nintendo bribery is working.  In the weeks since the cards, he has only received the one red card.  A couple of yellows, but mostly green.  I am proud of him, even if he drives me crazy!