Spring Fever

Finally it is here. In Canada, it seems we have 10 months of winter, one month of spring and one month of summer. Finally, the spring part is here. Having been bitten by the unaccountable energy zipping through the air, I can completely understand the phone call that I received last night. It went something like this:

Her: This is Liam's teacher calling.

Me: OH-OH. And I was having such a good day.

Her: (no giggles) ahem. We are having a problem in the classroom with Liam. He is not concentrating on his work. I assign his work and instead of applying himself he plays with his pencils, talks with his friends and is distracting his work team. Is there anything going on in his life that I should know about?

Me: Hmmm...where do I start? (I was wondering if this could be a free psycho-therapy session!) "No", I lie. "There is nothing that I can think of...." Her lack of ability to see my sense of humour has baffled me since September. I know now that to mention the sun or trees or to trail off mid-conversation pretending to forget what she is talking about will only earn me another "ahem" ... and I wonder where Liam gets it from sometimes.

Liam has two weeks - and has been threatened accordingly - to pull up his socks and focus. Just to put this in perspective, he risks moving from an excellent to a good. Not losing his grade. His teacher just "hates" to see kids sliding backward.

So now, I ask: Is it not normal for kids to be distracted in the spring, dreaming of frogs and skateboards (sorry to all you moms of girls, I know not what they like). Don't teachers get bitten by the bug as well? Do I have the only seven year old out there with seasonal affective disorder???