I was doing the dishes this morning cracking myself up at all these old stories that never made it into my blog. It would be a shame for these to escape my personal history.
Remember the time when I fed Sophie a chocolate bar all the way home from DC during earthquake traffic and later pulled out a chocolate covered baby? Well a similar thing happened with our experimentation with raisins on my way to get Devin from the bus. Eva started yelling, "Mom! It smells like barf in here!" I looked back and Sophie, her carseat, and the back of the seat was covered in this yellow poop. So right there in the parking lot in front of scores of commuters I had to strip her down and give her a wet wipe bath and do the same with the seat and car. It was sick. But it makes me laugh my head off now.
I also can now laugh and publicly talk about my kids being affectionately named "the Screamers" by an anonymous aunt and Eva in particular being named "Miss Piggy". She had (and sometimes still has but is getting much better) a terrible temper and would do that famous Miss Piggy scream where her head basically explodes. I have vivid memories of my mom laughing and smiling with amusement as I finally got a taste of my own medicine.
I need to get my friend Kim to write down this next story because she is the ultimate storyteller. But the first day I had my casts back when I broke my feet she was trying to help me onto the couch. She was nine months pregnant and the scooter/walker thing had no brakes and we both ended up on the floor on top of each other. It was hilarious. Oddly enough that wasn't the only time I got dumped out of a wheelchair during those two months. The second time was from my own sister, a nurse with experience! And I'll never let her live that one down. haha.
The Great Kindergarten Decision
So with those stories as a background I've decided to write the unedited version of why we decided to pull Eva out of Kindergarten this year. Hoping that instead of giving her a lifetime of self esteem issues we'll be able to laugh and say, "Remember when Eva dropped out of Kindergarten?" and "Remember when Eva got a note sent home on her second day of school?" So yes, it is true. Kindergarten was a very bad experiment this year. We picked up my mom from the airport last week and Eva said, "Grandma, I quit school! I went ten days and I am NOT going eleven!"
So what happened? Let me first say that her birthday is August 27th. She she was exactly 5 and 3 days when school started. We considered holding her back but we thought she would love it. So we decided to have her go ahead and start. The first day was great. She loved the bus, I cried my eyes out when I put her on the bus, then I came home and had an entire day to get caught up. It was great. But then I saw her for a couple hours and it was bedtime. Kindergarten in Virginia is a full-day. She was gone from 7:30 in the morning to 3:00 in the afternoon and it is a really, really long day for a 5-year-old. The second day I got a note home from the teacher, something happened in PE and I found out later that the teacher took it as an opportunity to teach the whole class about participation, in other words made an example of her on the second day of school. Then she began crying before school and during lunch and my resolve started to weaken. I went to school to have lunch with her and she just cried and cried. School was boring, school was long, the teacher always gets mad at me, they make me lay on a towel and stare at wall for nap time... among other complains. So one morning she was just bawling and we decided to keep her home for the day to look into some other options. I talked to everyone at the school, the teacher, principal, counselor... all assured me that she is doing really well in the class (except for being a chatterbox which is probably why the Eva felt the teacher was mad at her), can certainly do the work and that some kindergartners just take time to adjust. So I told Eva she had to go back while we figured it out. Which she did reluctantly. In the meantime we agonized over the decision. After to talking to so many people about it they all sort of said the same thing. There will be plenty of chances to regret not holding a child back but you will never regret holding them back. So if her birthday is on the borderline, she is not enjoying school now, why wouldn't you keep her home for one more year and give her the advantage of age and maturity going forward. It's not just Kindergarten, it's every year, it's high school, it's college. So we decided to wait one more year for her to start.
She started at a new preschool this week and it is amazing. Between preschool and our afternoon reading lessons I'm convinced she'll learn everything this year that she would have learned in Kindergarten anyway. The class has 7 kids all almost Eva's exact age, the teacher has a master's degree with many years of Kindergarten teaching experience. The class has an aide every day so the teacher can work individually with each child and let them move at their own pace. In short, Eva is happy and excited about school and learning and that's all that I really care about at this age. So yay, a happy ending a last for September 2013.
6 comments:
I love this post and the picture of Soph!! You are such a great mom... fabulous at looking out for the needs of your girls. Thanks for the update!
I think you did the right thing! Eva is such a smart little thing, she will be fine.
Holy moly! Those are some fun (funny?) (disgusting?) stories-- especially the raisin poop! Gag! I think pulling her out was the right decision. It's what I would have done too-- it is just not worth fighting them in the morning to go to school, and then once they get home the worry and stress starts right back up again all night long, so you can do it over again the next day.
Time and time again, I always hear of parents that put their kids in too early and deeply regret it. Then I have friends that held their kid back to be one of the oldest, and I always heard of what a great decision that was from 100% of them. I graduated High school when I was 17 and I wished my parents would have held me back too. I was almost a year younger than a lot of kids. We have 2 kids that have September birthdays, to hold them back almost a while extra year, was exciting to me, was glad i had one more year with them, and I was happy that they were going to be one of the oldest. You made the right decision I think indeed. Those girls are adorable, I miss hearing their cute little voices. Miss you all. Hope all is well :)
In my defense.... those ramps would never be approved in a hospital setting! I am glad that you were a young spry lady... and able to handle the fall! As for Eva, she will be just fine. It is fun getting your driver's license before the rest of the grade!
You are the exact kind of mother I want to be. Please always blog about your decisions so I can just make the same ones. I totally agree with your decision to hold her back. She is an "out of the box" child and I think this will help her be the exact person she is meant to be. I can't wait to see the amazing things she does as she grows up. I have a feeling that you will be a proud mom :)
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