Updates

I can't believe I haven't written in over a month! The end of December and all of January were a horrid blur of stress, family problems, monetary issues, and the feeling that I was running as fast as I could on a sheet of solid ice to try to keep up with everything. Blah! Here's hoping February is better!

I've lost two friends in the last 4 weeks, both moving to the same neighboring district. That makes me the smallest K class in my building by 3, so guess who's in line for the next several new friends who move in? I have to go in to school this afternoon and rearrange the seating chart, both at their tables and on the gathering carpet, to account for the holes left by our departed friends. I worry about the one who was moving this weekend - he's a sweet quiet kid, the youngest in a notoriously bad family and the white sheep among black. He's also a struggling reader with absolutely no home support. He has come SO FAR in the last couple of weeks, finally mastering all of his letter sounds and beginning to understand how to put them together into words, I hate losing him just when it's starting to click!

Since it has been so long, I thought I would do an update post, and hopefully be able to introduce a new friend next week.

Princess - King Daddy make it home from the war, safe and sound, just before Winter Break. Princess has been buddying up with Thing One, a bad choice on her part. Late last week they were both whispering, giggling, and tickling each other on the carpet during story time. After a couple of reminders I made them both go flip cards and sit apart from each other. I got an email from Queen Mum before I left that afternoon, protesting that Princess had NOT been talking, it was all Thing One (because she was there in the classroom, you know, not 5 miles away taking care of Crown Prince) and it was unfair that Princess had flipped a card when another child was bothering her. I was at the end of a very long day, and she was my third uptight parent contact of the day, so my response was a fairly terse "yes, she WAS talking, she deserved to flip that card, have a good day" sort of message. I forwarded her email and my response to my admin. team, in case she decided to escalate her complaint and promptly left for the day. Nothing more has come from Queen Mum, so I guess she decided perhaps I might possibly be more aware of the events in my classroom that she is.

Van Gogh - I'm actually starting to enjoy this little man! I never EVER thought that would happen, but we've managed to move from daily, sometimes hourly, tantrums to maybe 1 or 2 a week. In the meantime I have found a reward that he really wants - if we can make it through the day with no tantrums I will play a game or two of checkers with him during centers time. He asked me several weeks ago if I would teach him how to play, after spotting an old checkerboard on the games shelf in my closet. I was hesitant at first, fearing that he would not be able to handle having his checkers jumped and taken off the board. We had a long talk about how the game works and that if he threw a fit over being jumped I would immediately walk away from the game. Much to my surprise his standard response to being jumped is to say "Hmmmm..... you are a TRICKY one Mrs. K......." and then study the board intently to try to keep it from happening again. I think the orderly rules of checkers appeal to Van Gogh's OCD tendencies and for a six year old he is very good at the strategy of the game. The first few games I held back, wanting him to win some and lose some. Now, I have to pay attention to the board or he dominates!

Thing One - my half of Double Trouble has settled down and improved his behavior so much that I have been able to discontinue his daily behavior report! He still has his moments of immaturity and/or teasing Van Gogh, but day in and day out I'm able to enjoy him. As I suspected, when Eager Beaver, our reading facilitator, tested everyone to be placed in ability based reading groups in Jan. Thing One tested out near the top of the crop and is in the high group. From what I understand from Thing Two's teacher he is still struggling with behavior issues and still taking home a daily report, usually with lots of cards flipped, so I maintain my feeling that I'm happy to have gotten the half of Double Trouble that I got!

Southern Belle - Bless her heart, she just almost can't stand these subzero temps and told me wistfully that she misses wearing shorts and going to the beach every weekend. She has finally found her place in the pecking order of the classroom and is no longer standing on the sidelines every recess, sadly watching the others play. I did wind up buying her a stocking cap and gloves to keep at school because she never had them and was always complaining that her ears and hands were "sooooo cawld!" I usually keep a basket of stretchy gloves in the room for children to borrow if they don't have gloves of their own, but I bought her a special pink flowered set to keep in her cubby. I will let her take them home in April, once I'm sure we won't need them at school anymore.

Toddler Girl - Once she got past the shock of being back with us, I think Toddler Girl is thrilled to be in our class again. She is talking so much more than she ever did before, to the delight of everyone, and actually trying to play with the other children instead of just parallel play. Spending her mornings with Mrs. SPED has done wonders for her - she can now write the first 3 letters of her 10 letter long name and is starting to understand better how to behave at school. Poor Toddler Girl got extremely sick with the flu and missed nearly a week of school recently. Now that she's back I have to monitor her carefully for any signs of fever, cough, or lethargy and she has a special nutritional supplement she has to drink at snack time instead of milk because she lost 7 lbs off of her already tiny frame.

I'll try to get back to posting at least once a week! I still want to introduce Pukey, Tattlin' Queen, and Farm Boy sooner or later!