Week one of kindergarten is so over. In contrast to Day 1, I would say things are better but there is plenty of room for improvement. Drop off is the worst part. I am able to park and walk to the front door of the school with him, but once inside I can go no further and have to put him in line of all the other kindergarteners marching to class, along the Blue Line of Tape That is not to be Strayed From. This is when the tears begin...sobbing tears. Clinging to me tears. Yesterday the sweet librarian grabbed him and gently took his hand...he later told me that she eats books for lunch. I am not sure if she was trying to be scary or funny, but he fortunately thought it was funny and I think they bonded.
As a side note, Claire has a new habit of throwing everything into the kitchen sink. And, I have decided that I prefer almonds to pecans.
So, back to kindergarten. Aside from the rather stark contrast to preschool, and the trauma of drop off, I think we are doing okay. He has made three friends, Lila, Zachary and Maurice. We met Lila at Meet The Teacher night and he took an instant liking to her. I get full reports of sitting next to her at lunch, etc...Zachary is a very sweet kid who he met the first day, and Maurice is new as of today (to the friend list.) Maurice rates because he rides the bus. And that is exotic and fascinating.
A strange, but wonderful, byproduct of kindergarten appears to be a newfound fascination with making his bed and cleaning his room. I cannot explain this, and just call 'em as I see 'em.
So, drop off in the morning seems to be our most difficult hurdle at this point. I believe we can come up with some strategy to make this easier on him, and I will post our progress on that front. I still, to be honest, do not love this little school. We are one week in and in the one exchange I have had with his teacher that has lasted more than three seconds she told me that he cries every morning and that she has to shut the window shades so he wont look out the windows for me, and that he has difficulty writing his name (quelle surprise!). I think it's time for our first parent/teacher conference...because none of that really tells me anything. What do you do when he cries? Do you really have to shut the blinds? And are you concerned that one week in, that he can't write his name too well? Ah...the frustration begins.
~Christie
Big Boo Cast: Episode 380
9 months ago
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??? Hello Teacher! Tell me something POSITIVE about my child?????? What is up with that??? IT WILL GET BETTER.
ReplyDeleteI hope morning drop offs are getting better by now. It was so tough on both my kids, especially Avery though. The 2nd day of Kindergarten, her teacher had to literally pry her off my leg while screaming and crying - she had a bear hug hold around my thigh. After that horrible experience, what seemed to help her was us practicing the morning drops offs at home without her screaming and crying (we acted it out), then I gave her something to look forward to in the afternoons if she didn't cry. The promise of a great big hug from mommy and a Slush from Sonic were enough to help her not scream and throw a fit the next morning! :-) We have open enrollment here, so we get to pick any school that we want our kids to attend in the entire city. I picked their school. I love their school and think it's excellent, and their Kindergarten teacher was the Mary Poppins of Kindergarten teachers. Pretty much as close to perfect as I could have hoped for, and yet both of my kids still struggled to make the transition from pre-k to Kinder... You could have the best school and the best teacher for Duncan, and he still may have struggled. So don't beat yourself up about that. Starting Kindergarten is a huge change for a lot of kiddos! Give it time. It will get better.
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