School-age Check-in (9/27)

[oldbaylover1024]

enchanted - We struggle with the boys v. girls stuff, too. J is obsessed with colors though. My favorite conversation:

J: Mama, why do boys get so many colors? They get blue and green and red and black and brown and yellow. Girls only get pink and purple. That's dumb! I like those colors, too!
Me: Well, honey, colors are for everyone. There are no boy and girl colors, just like there aren't boy and girl toys or clothes.
J: That's right! I like green and blue and red and black and brown and yellow, too... But pink and purple are my favorite.

LOL

-----

J is four going on 16.

She is loving pre-K, and we've received many comments on her math and reading skills. I'm so proud of her. She's doing really well. She's also meeting lots of new friends in her class and tells me every day how happy she is to have new friends. She's always been very social, and she's very, very concerned if one of her friends feels left out. J makes sure she includes everyone and I love it.

ETA: Oh, and she started dance last week and loves it! She can't wait to go back on Saturday. And I love that it's closed door (I can see through the window). Since I can't go in, I get 45 minutes of quiet to read. SCORE!

I'm just... well, yeah. Permanently exhausted is a good description, enchanted LOL

QOTW: All the sudden she thinks boys can't have long hair. J said someone told her boys should have short hair. I know exactly what teacher it was, too. She isn't J's teacher anymore, but I said something the last time we were there. It kind of irked me because this teacher is very conservative which, okay, is fine. But don't start making comments about gender stereotypes to my pre-K kid. Just... no. Keep your opinions to yourself. She understood and I said something to the director, too. I'm 99% sure it's the same teacher with the 'boy and girl' colors.

[boxerific]

DS2 is 4.5. He's in afternoon pre-k every day at our local elementary school. He's in a classroom with typical peers and some with special needs. His speech IEP helped get him into this class (it's prioritized for low income families, and IEP students, but his isn't ranked as high since it's speech only). Anyway, we're really happy he was accepted for consistency purposes. He loves it and gets to ride the bus to and from, and on teh way home it's with all of the neighborhood kids. My favorite was the first day he got to ride home, he was literally yelling, "MOMMY I GOT TO RIDE THE BUS WITH THE WHOLE KIDS!"

He's playing soccer this fall which is going about as well as you'd expect with a 4 year old. His attitude is fierce, but not surprising since DS1 was hardest at age 4 as well.

QOTW: What is something your kid picked up at school that you wish s/he hadn't? A cold.

[boxerific]

DS1 is 8.5. He's in 3rd grade and has one of my dearest friends as his teacher. He's really good at school (loves helping, including friends, etc) but has always had a tendency to rush through assignments to get to the more fun stuff. So his teacher is working on getting him to slow down and focus a bit.

He's doing fall ball again which is mostly a clinic to work on skills. He still claims he wants to be a professional baseball player when he grows up, so when he hems and haws about having to go to practice instead of playing with his friends, I remind him that [insert MLB player] had to give up things he liked too to get where he is now. We'll see how this lasts.

QOTW: What is something your kid picked up at school that you wish s/he hadn't? Dabbing. For the love of Pete, can we stop with the dabbing?

[hawkward]

DS1 (6) is in first grade. He's mostly enjoying it. We're struggling a bit with reading. A lot of things come naturally to him, so he's getting easily frustrated that reading does not.

I'm good but tired. I can't wait for soccer season to be over.

QOTW: We have a lot of the boys vs girls stuff. He also gets a lot of crap for being so short and equates being tall with being a good person now. That one has taken a lot of talking to work through.

[oldbaylover1024]

hawkward - Tall = good person? That sounds tough to talk about with a 6YO.

[hawkward]

Sept 28, 2017 11:32:19 GMT -6 oldbaylover1024 said:

hawkward - Tall = good person? That sounds tough to talk about with a 6YO.

There's a kid in class who is really tall and happens to be good at soccer and a good reader (two areas where DS1 is hyper focused), so he made the mental leap of "the only way N is different is he's tall." It's been interesting. 

On a side note, I hate N. I mean, I'm normally a "you never know what's happening in a kid's life" kind of person, but I hate that kid. He's one of my soccer kids, and he's a smug little bully.*


*Obviously I'm careful to not show it and would never say any of this out loud around DS1. 

[oldbaylover1024]

hawkward - That sounds tough indeed. J has a friend I can't stand. Obviously, I never say anything in front of J or anything and we've done play dates and such. But it's tough when your child connects with another kid that just... isn't your cup of tea. I can appreciate the conundrum.

[hawkward]

oldbaylover1024, I miss when he was little and I could literally just pick him up and move him away from situations I didn't want him in.