Friday, March 19, 2010

The Good and Bad of Kindergarten

When Zoe gets home from school each day I always get a pretty thorough report. Although I've noticed that she sometimes leaves out bits of information like "I yelled at Savannah" or "I ran in the hall and got busted," she's pretty good about remembering what song she sang in music, who (else) got in trouble, who picked their nose and if anyone brought in a birthday treat. Now that we are two-thirds of the way through the school year, I've realized that there are some things that I like hearing about more than others.

Things I like to hear about kindergarten:

Zoe brought home her "report card" for the second trimester and we reviewed it together. I congratulated her on the fact that her "grades" have improved and are really good for things like math and reading, but pointed out that she still seems to be having a little trouble when it comes to controlling herself physically and verbally, showing respect and working/playing well with others (stop getting confused, I'm still talking about Zoe). She stared down at the minus signs attached to the "S" marks and decided right then and there that she was going to make those minus signs disappear by the end of the school year. In fact, she said "I'm going to be a behaver from now on."

Thinking that the novelty of her new goal would last a day or two before she returned to her dominating ways, I was surprised when she came home on Thursday and said that "Michael finished a worksheet before me and said 'Ha ha. Nah nah' to me. That made me mad, so I told the teacher and the teacher got mad at him." While I'm glad that she didn't haul off and push Michael off of his chair or stab the back of his hand with her pencil for saying something so completely moronic, I'm not super thrilled that she could potentially be becoming a tattle-tale. I guess I'm going to have to work harder at teaching her the crucial skill of blowing boys off and ignoring them.

Things I don't like to hear about kindergarten:

In addition to the story about Michael being creatively challenged, she also said that "Zeke sits at the white table, and he threw up all over it and it was so gross (fortunately Zoe sits at the red table). So the teacher gave him a trash can and he walked down to the nurses office. It was so gross, so I looked away and pinched my nose." She told me this story while I was making her lunch and right before she plopped onto the couch, holding a book in her hands.

"That's a really gross story, Zoe. Hey, did you wash your hands with soap and water when you got home?" Please let her say yes, please let her say yes. Please let this not be the one day that she forgot...

"Ooops."

No comments: