Tag: Education
What’s I Don’t Know + I Don’t Know=?
Is it normal that my boys constantly barrage me with addition and subtraction questions? They also ask me how to spell things, the eating habits of dinosaurs and the prerequisites of the United States presidency. Additionally, every morning while we wait for his school’s doors to open, Full Speed quizzes me on loose change addition. He grabs a heap of coins, spreads them out on the dashboard and then divides them by categories. From there we have to value the categories and figure out the sum.
It’s kind of exhausting. Maybe this is normal and the truth is I’m feeling overwhelmed. I’m fast realizing that soon I won’t be able to answer any of their questions accurately because they will fall outside my scope of knowledge.
Maybe it’s time for Mommy to go back to school.
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The Calm Before Normal
T.Puzzle was unusually calm this morning. As we entered his school he quietly walked up to the receptionist and said ‘good morning’. He stood placidly in place as I signed the attendance binder.
After I had dropped him off and was getting ready to leave, the receptionist commented on his demeanor this morning. I said he didn’t quite seem himself.
It is rather telling if my child acts ‘normal’ or ‘calm’ that it is immediately assumed something is amiss.
Will the day come when rowdiness is the new normal? If so, I will be on easy street.
First Day 2011
Yesterday was the boys’ first day of school. The hardest part about it was the logistics. Since everyone and several of each child’s close relatives were there to help celebrate the first morning drop off, it could only be likened to a human zoo. The parking lot overflowed with cars going off-road. Parents were shoulder to shoulder as we marched are children to their fates. Patience was in short supply.
I allowed myself to be swept away by the noise, the crowd and generalized anxiety I was feeling. This was how I coped with the changes upon us. My stoic exterior finally began to crack once Full Speed was successfully dropped off and I was taking T.Puzzle to his first day of pre-k. It was eerily quiet in the car. He was calm and his biggest concern was where I had put his backpack.
“I’m so excited to start school!” he exclaimed.
And that’s when it hit me. He is more than ready for this next phase of his life.
I am more than ready to not really be ready.
I know I should be thankful both boys handled the first day so well. In a way, it almost makes it harder for me. It shows me that they are two independent kids who are comfortable being out in the world and away from me.
Now all I have to do learn is how to be comfortable out in the world without them.
Somehow I think they got the better end of the bargain.
Good Manners vs. Bad Behavior
I was volunteering in Full Speed’s class, which when given a chance to interact with the kids, I thoroughly enjoy. It’s a lot more entertaining than if I get sent off to make copies or cut paper. I love to watch Full Speed in the classroom setting. He’s impatient, antsy, full of answers even to questions that aren’t being asked and rather comical. A lot of the kids like to share with me that Full Speed is ‘silly’ or ‘funny’. I interpret this to mean ‘ the teacher has her hands full keeping him in line’. So when his teacher pulls me aside to discuss a morning incident concerning Full Speed, I am not surprised.
Apparently there was a scuffle of sorts with a fellow classmate in which Full Speed hit the other child with his lunch box. When the teacher asked him point-blank why he did it he said, ‘I don’t know, ma’am’. When pressed further about his intentions he kept politely replying, ‘I don’t know, ma’am’.
The bad news is that Full Speed can be a little hotheaded; the good news is his manners will be impeccable when questioned in a court of law.
I’m so relieved.