flea

Dillo told me in the car last night that sweat was microscopic water that gets on your skin.  So I noted what an excellent word microscopic was, and reiterated what it meant, and then we were off on a microscopic kick.  Such that when we got home and had cheese and crackers he asked for "that which cheese with microscopic dots of black in it" (by which he meant Boursin, which the children ADORE.)

At dinner Casper and I had a hilarious conversation about her relationship with Eliza, which has been making her insane and weepy all week. She was bemoaning the fact that Eliza "makes" her sit with her at lunch and I told her she was in charge of who she sits with and she confessed that she actually sites with Eliza because Eliza gives her the Ritz Bits from her lunch!  She confessed this like it was some huge dark secret and I was hard-pressed not to laugh out loud.  In general, though, this Eliza situation is maddening - to hear Casper talk Eliza is a spoiled mean girl, and while Eliza is sort of bossy, she is actually not evil, you know?  They are definitely fremeies this week, though, and I have been encouraging distance.  As I keep telling Casper, Eliza cannot actually make her do anything - she is in charge of her own choices.

Casper went to a birthday sleepover last night, 3 houses down, with 5 other girls, all of whom are in her class at school. It sounds like it went okay, except when they were going to bed, she was being noisy and the other girls yelled at her, so she went and slept in another room all by herself and pretty much played by herself in the morning. I haven't talked to her about it (mr. flea did), but it makes me so sad, the social issues thing. I know kids are just kids and learning to deal with stuff, and I think she found a good solution. But at the same time it brings up some of the negative social dynamics in the class that I thought had faded. The dueling bossy girls were both at the party.

Meanwhile back at the homestead, Dillo planned a "sleepover" for himself in the living room. He fell asleep in his sleeping back watching Olympics, but woke up coughing at 10 and we had a long night after that. He's developed a phlegmy chest cold, and kept freaking out at coughing up mucus, and waking himself up. So, while last night we had a queen, a double, and 3 single beds set up in our house (the extras from overnight guests on Weds.), Dillo slept on my chest on the couch most of the night.

I hauled myself out to sell Girl Scout cookie at Target (sans Casper) at 9am, and had a good time getting to know some new people. One of whom turns out to be Vic Chesnutt's sister. Athens being Athens.

Despite serious trying, we couldn't get either kid to nap today, so we're feeding them and hoping they fall asleep sooon! Although it was gronky, it was a beautiful day, and I did some yard work and hope to do more tomorrow.

We had our first teacher conference yesterday, with Mrs. C. I felt generally good about it.

1. Social issues. Mrs. C acknowledges that this class had a very different vibe from her class last year, especially driven by the fact that there are two outspoken and competitive girls who seem to be setting the social dynamic. She is trying to get the class more involved in collaborative work, but this group hasn't gelled as well as some of her previous classes. It's a pity, since Casper seems to be good at and enjoy the collaborative work. The social issues are going to be discussed with the parents in question, and I ran into one of them after school and we had a good talk. Mrs. C knew that the dynamic was occurring in recess, but I was able to tell her that it was also happening in after school.

Mrs. C's concern about Casper is that she is shy in class, won't speak up, and sometimes when she does she used a baby voice or a very quiet voice. We said, "OUR KID OMGAREYOUKIDDING?" and told Mrs. C some anecdotes (like Casper's mean notes) that I think opened her eyes. She was interested in my suggestion that Casper held things back at school. When I talked to Casper about it at home, it was clear that this is a problem - she got very shy and embarrassed. She said the Mrs. B (the parapro) yells a lot (huh? wouldn't have expected that, and Mrs. B runs girl scouts which Casper loves). So we had a pep talk about speaking up and not worrying about being wrong, that Mrs. C loves her and wants to hear her voice.

The other concern Mrs. C had was Casper's distractability, especially when they are seated on the floor working together. Interestingly, at the end of the session mr. flea remarked that he was having a hard time focusing on our conversation because there was so much going on in the room (i.e. in the decorations and work posted). And Casper has always been a little daydreamy - I think this is just her nature, and there's not a whole lot we can do to change it. Homework at home has been a problem, with maintaining focus. We've had to take Dillo completely away.

2. Reading. Casper is right at the "normal" point for first graders. It's a little hard to be there, because there are 7 kids in the class who are reading way above grade level, and obviously everyone in the class can see that. Mrs. C wanted to emphasize that Casper was doing well and making progress and she should not feel bad about her reading skills (nor should we) because she is not exceptional. Happily at least one of Casper's friends is in her reading group. I see some clear progress when she reads to me - which she is now more willing to do and more able to do fluently. Mrs. C also had some good suggestions that we can use when we do the reading homework, to keep her from reciting the book from memory based on the pictures (which is her tendency). We've also been watching some of the new Electric Company at home, and it's pitched exactly at Casper's current level, and she seems to like it.

3. Math. Casper picks stuff up easily (she totally got greater than and less than instantly), and loves that this work is more hands-on and collabroative. No content concerns at all with math.

I think there will be some social fallout in the class based on conversations Mrs. C had with parents. I'm interested to see what happens. I'm also thinking of asking Casper's friend Penny's mother to keep her after school one day a week, as a sort of break from the very long day she has with all the same girls, some of whom fight with each other which stresses Casper out. I still think the main after school teachers aren't very good.

On Monday we received a big packet in the mail informing us that Casper's new school failed No Child Left Behind this year - did not meet Adequate Yearly Progress goals. So we have the option to transfer to another school, or have a school-paid tutor for our child. Since they only test in grades 3, 4, and 5, and the Montessori program phase-in only reaches grade 3 this year (I think), I'm not too worried, but it is disappointing.

Today was the open house (1-2 pm; apparently in the past they did it at night and I'm sure going to ask them to do it that way in future). We found Casper's name on the list in the Pre-K/K hallway. She is going to have Mrs. B as her teacher, and be in a class of 14 kids, 6 5 year olds and 8 four year olds. Kid names: Logan, Maya, Nelly, Stephen, Ofelia, Lauren, Isabelle, Alejandro, Gabriel, America, Karen, Leslie, Tamara, Dylan, Stephanie. Which, plus Casper makes 16 kids, so I have no idea what's up - the list was copied from the printed class list on the wall plus the sheet where people signed in their kids, so maybe Nelly is a nickname of Ofelia, or they've added a kid or two since the class list was printed. About 10 kid-parent sets actually showed up. Stephanie has been in Casper's class at the day care for 2 years now, so that's nice, although they aren't particularly close (and her parents didn't come). We don't know any of the other families (yet).

Casper LOVED the classroom. It has an internal bathroom (one of our worries), a guinea pig, a doll house (a very caucasian doll family; I wonder if I can ask Mrs. B if we could get some non-white people too), and lots of cool stuff. Casper didn't want to leave after an hour, and had to be dragged to the bathroom while doing the pee-pee dance. She was also pretty outgoing with some of the other kids and didn't hesitate to start talking/playing with them.

Mrs. B is a newlywed, new to the city and the school and the Montessori method, although she's been teaching Pre-K or K for 3 years already. If she's any older than 24 I'll eat my hat. She seemed shy with the parents and answering questions about school routines and bureaucracy, but more confident with the kids. She's only had the intensive 3-week training in the Montessori method, and will be doing intensive training throughout the year, but she seems really interested in the method. When I asked about cupcakes for the birthday, she reminded me that part of the Whole Child thing was healthy snacks (but in a really nice way, not a holier than thou way.) I hope she has a good mentor, and I'd like to see that she has a steely side at some point, or I'll worry about discipline (Casper is an arguer and a weaseller!) but I am hopeful that this will be a good class despite her youth.

Most of the Park Mommy families are concentrated in the classes with the two returning, senior teachers, both of whom have good reputations. I wonder if this is coincidence or political networking, but oh well, what can you do.