Posted Monday, August 31, 2009 - 10:22 by Anonymous
Well, I was worried about the wrong kid.
How long did we wring our hands and experience gut-wrenching anguish over Thomas’ surely difficult and confusing transition to all-day, eat-lunch-at-school first grade? On the first day of school, he kissed me goodbye and walked in the building. Okay, so long! See you later! Hayley, on the other hand, was rather upset, sobbing loudly. I have a bit of a dilemma on my hands that I have to drop Hayley off at the Kindergarten entrance and Thomas gets dropped off at the First Grade entrance. So on the first day, it was pouring outside (naturally) so we had to walk into the hall. I left Hayley, who wasn’t listening to me and when I told her that I’d be right back after I found out where Thomas needed to go. I walked about ten feet away when I heard her crying. One of the aides who knows Thomas offered to take him to his class so that I could stay with Hayley, which I did, until it was time for me to leave her. She was crying – loudly and a lot.
Jonathan and I were completely confused by this behavior. Hayley had been in that classroom once every week for the past school year! However, Jonathan made the sensible point that I had been with her the whole time she was there. This was the first time I left her there. Okay, that makes sense. Anyway, Hayley stopped crying shortly after I left and ended up having an okay day. Since it rained for the first three days of school this year, Jonathan was able to pick up the kids with me which was nice for him and the kids. Thomas was very excited to see Jonathan after his first day of school. We immediately noticed that Thomas had forgotten his lunch box and home folder so we had to go back in for them. His teacher said that he did a fine job and the social worker said that the few times she poked her head in the room, he was doing great. So Thomas is off to a surprisingly smooth start. Of course, I remember last year when there was a “honeymoon period” right at the beginning of the year and then things went downhill a bit. I might be remembering a couple years ago when Thomas was in preschool. I don’t know. I just hope we keep grooving like this.
Thomas is doing fine eating lunch at school, although he rarely finishes. I guess he eats like Jonathan – slooooooowly. Most days, he brings his bag home with leftovers. He always asks for a snack when he gets home which is not that weird – most kids have after-school snacks. But I hope he’s getting enough time to eat. Rather, it’s probably that he doesn’t stay focused and eat when it’s time to do so. He might be socializing with the two girls he sits next to. Anyway, he likes recess and he likes eating lunch at school. We’ve managed to put other edible (to Thomas’ standards) items in his lunch box so that we don’t have make pizza every night to put in the lunch box the next day. He eats chicken nuggets and chicken sandwiches too. We put a juice pouch or chocolate milk in there along with maybe a granola bar and fruit snacks. The fruit snacks are always finished when we get his lunch bag back. It’s usually the nuggets, pizza or sandwich that is half-eaten.
Part of the program in first grade is learning to read, so we have to read with Thomas for twenty minutes every night. I have modified this program to reading one book at night. Making Thomas try to do anything he doesn’t enjoy for twenty minutes is frustrating for him and us. He’s able to recognize words when prompted, so he’s got a good foundation. I just wonder when he’s going to start trying to sound out words on his own. He makes the word sounds but doesn’t put them together. And then there’s Hayley, who’s prone to know-it-all-ism, hanging over my shoulder, shouting, “Mommy! I know that word!” It’s hard getting her to keep quiet while I’m trying to get Thomas to read. I’ll have to put her in her room while we’re trying to read from now on.
It’s hard, too, to try and get everything ready for school on nights when I work. I try to get lunches made and homework done before I go to work at 5 p.m. But I suspect I’m preaching to the choir of my readers here…I don’t even work full-time, so I have little room to complain about trying to keep everything running smoothly. Things are going well for me at work, though. They really seem to like me and I won Employee Of The Month while we were in Florida and they want me to start training new people as a “Neighborhood Expert” which I am not officially yet as I have to attend some sort of “expert camp” or retreat or something before. At least it’s nice to be appreciated.
One funny story and then I’m off to collect Hayley from school: The last time the kids were at the cottage, they went out for ice cream. Hayley and Grandma ordered the same flavor, so Mary said that they were “ice cream buddies.” Fast-forward to this past Friday when Hayley and Thomas both chose to have grape Kool-Aid for dinner. Hayley looked at her cup and his and declared, “Thomas! Look! We’re drinking buddies!” Jonathan and I laughed until there were tears in our eyes.
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Well, I was worried about the wrong kid.
How long did we wring our hands and experience gut-wrenching anguish over Thomas’ surely difficult and confusing transition to all-day, eat-lunch-at-school first grade? On the first day of school, he kissed me goodbye and walked in the building. Okay, so long! See you later! Hayley, on the other hand, was rather upset, sobbing loudly. I have a bit of a dilemma on my hands that I have to drop Hayley off at the Kindergarten entrance and Thomas gets dropped off at the First Grade entrance. So on the first day, it was pouring outside (naturally) so we had to walk into the hall. I left Hayley, who wasn’t listening to me and when I told her that I’d be right back after I found out where Thomas needed to go. I walked about ten feet away when I heard her crying. One of the aides who knows Thomas offered to take him to his class so that I could stay with Hayley, which I did, until it was time for me to leave her. She was crying – loudly and a lot.
Jonathan and I were completely confused by this behavior. Hayley had been in that classroom once every week for the past school year! However, Jonathan made the sensible point that I had been with her the whole time she was there. This was the first time I left her there. Okay, that makes sense. Anyway, Hayley stopped crying shortly after I left and ended up having an okay day. Since it rained for the first three days of school this year, Jonathan was able to pick up the kids with me which was nice for him and the kids. Thomas was very excited to see Jonathan after his first day of school. We immediately noticed that Thomas had forgotten his lunch box and home folder so we had to go back in for them. His teacher said that he did a fine job and the social worker said that the few times she poked her head in the room, he was doing great. So Thomas is off to a surprisingly smooth start. Of course, I remember last year when there was a “honeymoon period” right at the beginning of the year and then things went downhill a bit. I might be remembering a couple years ago when Thomas was in preschool. I don’t know. I just hope we keep grooving like this.
Thomas is doing fine eating lunch at school, although he rarely finishes. I guess he eats like Jonathan – slooooooowly. Most days, he brings his bag home with leftovers. He always asks for a snack when he gets home which is not that weird – most kids have after-school snacks. But I hope he’s getting enough time to eat. Rather, it’s probably that he doesn’t stay focused and eat when it’s time to do so. He might be socializing with the two girls he sits next to. Anyway, he likes recess and he likes eating lunch at school. We’ve managed to put other edible (to Thomas’ standards) items in his lunch box so that we don’t have make pizza every night to put in the lunch box the next day. He eats chicken nuggets and chicken sandwiches too. We put a juice pouch or chocolate milk in there along with maybe a granola bar and fruit snacks. The fruit snacks are always finished when we get his lunch bag back. It’s usually the nuggets, pizza or sandwich that is half-eaten.
Part of the program in first grade is learning to read, so we have to read with Thomas for twenty minutes every night. I have modified this program to reading one book at night. Making Thomas try to do anything he doesn’t enjoy for twenty minutes is frustrating for him and us. He’s able to recognize words when prompted, so he’s got a good foundation. I just wonder when he’s going to start trying to sound out words on his own. He makes the word sounds but doesn’t put them together. And then there’s Hayley, who’s prone to know-it-all-ism, hanging over my shoulder, shouting, “Mommy! I know that word!” It’s hard getting her to keep quiet while I’m trying to get Thomas to read. I’ll have to put her in her room while we’re trying to read from now on.
It’s hard, too, to try and get everything ready for school on nights when I work. I try to get lunches made and homework done before I go to work at 5 p.m. But I suspect I’m preaching to the choir of my readers here…I don’t even work full-time, so I have little room to complain about trying to keep everything running smoothly. Things are going well for me at work, though. They really seem to like me and I won Employee Of The Month while we were in Florida and they want me to start training new people as a “Neighborhood Expert” which I am not officially yet as I have to attend some sort of “expert camp” or retreat or something before. At least it’s nice to be appreciated.
One funny story and then I’m off to collect Hayley from school: The last time the kids were at the cottage, they went out for ice cream. Hayley and Grandma ordered the same flavor, so Mary said that they were “ice cream buddies.” Fast-forward to this past Friday when Hayley and Thomas both chose to have grape Kool-Aid for dinner. Hayley looked at her cup and his and declared, “Thomas! Look! We’re drinking buddies!” Jonathan and I laughed until there were tears in our eyes.