week ending oct 14, 2007:

Week ending Oct 14, 2007: This week I decided to visit the preschool. The kids have been getting progressively less enthusiastic about going to school and Tuesday they told me they were NOT going to school. They told me they were not going to put their shoes on, they were not going to get in the car, they were not going to get out of the car, and they were not going to walk to class. I told them it wasn’t optional (not in so many words), and they relented and went to class without a fuss, but I was still concerned about what was driving them to not want to go to class. The school has an open door policy, so I stayed with them in the class for the whole 2.5 hours. Alex and Chloe appeared to have a wonderful time with lots of interaction with the other kids, lots of playing inside and out, and nothing that looked too rigorously academic. I talked briefly with the teacher about my concerns (she’s quite busy watching all those kids) and she said that Alex and Chloe don’t complain about being at school while they are there. She suspects their refusals are just a power struggle with me. She did say that Alex refuses to participate in some of the activities, usually the arts and crafts stuff, and she just invites him to join in, but doesn’t make it mandatory. At home Alex is not always excited about arts and crafts, so I’m not surprised. I’ve spent a lot of energy wondering whether having them in school for 2 years of preschool is the right thing to do, especially since they tell me they don’t want to go. Right now I haven’t seen them upset about having to go to school or about anything that happened at school, and I have seen Alex making progress with social skills and they are both making progress with their writing/drawing skills, so I think school is beneficial for them this year. I don’t need them to be MENSA members, but I think this time away from home with other kids will help them make an easier transition to Kindergarten which (for our state) is a full day and 5 days a week.
On a lighter note, Chloe’s been embarrassing me (and making me laugh) by saying things I know she must have heard from me like “Don’t worry Mom, it’s not the end of the world” and “Why do I have to say ‘stop it’ 12 times?!” Alex made us laugh the other day when he was trying to tell us which shirt he wanted to wear. He said “the nipple pocket shirt” to describe the shirt with the pocket on the chest. I guess I’m just immature because I can’t hear someone say the word “nipple” without laughing. Here are the pictures from our visit to the U.S. Botanic Gardens this week: http://picasaweb.google.com/constance.phelps/USBotanicGardens