Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Muddy SPC and MAJOR frustrations with kindergarten

Today I chose to do a SP that is a little fun. I have had an idea in my head for the last couple weeks of something I was going to do... but then I threw it out the window and decided to do this instead. I wanted to do a fun, lighthearted intry this week. I have noticed that pretty much all of my SP have pictures of me with no smile. Well, this week i am smiling.

About 2 weeks ago I took my boys to Mighty Mud Mania. It is at a big park in Scottsdale AZ. Where they basically turn the whole place into a mud pit for the day. There are obstacle courses and places for the younger kids to play. The fire dept. is even there to spray the kids down with their hoses. It was a great day all in all. The boys and I got very muddy and wet and dirty... and had a blast.

So here is my entry for today. I am enclosed in Messy muddy fun. :)

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

Also, I have put together a little slide of some of the other pictures of that day. I couldn't help it there were just too many fun pictures to choose from!



And as always you can see other peoples portraits HERE

Now, onto the subject of Kayden's kindergarten... UGH! Can I say FRUSTRATION???? Yeah I am a little frustrated. I am beginning to wonder if maybe I should have gone ahead and waited until next year to start him. He is only a couple months younger than the majority of kids in his class, but i know there are also other kids in his class as young or even younger than he is. But even though he is totally ready to start as far as being ready to learn more and even already knowing how to do some things that the older kids in his class cannot, such as writing his letters and numbers and some words... He is still a little immature emotionally however. Or rather he acts exactly like a 4 year old.

As of yesterday (his 3rd day of school EVER) Kayden has been sent out of class to the principals office TWICE!!! Now, nobody even mentioned the first time to me, Kayden told me himself. But yesterday when I picked him up his teacher did mention to me that he has been having a hard time. She was very kind and nice about it all, but I get the feeling that they are not all too patient with him (this could of course be me being a mother though too).

When I asked what he was doing she told me it is things like not staying on task, and not staying focused. He apparently gets bored or whatever with what he is doing and starts to touch other peoples work. She said that he keeps trying to take off his shoes... Now to me that sounds like not too big of a deal, I personally hate shoes and remember doing the same thing. My kids don't wear shoes often so he has to get used to it now. My one year old has only ever worn shoes two times in his life so far... I think bare feet are good!!! :) She mentioned he has a hard time sitting still on the floor with the class. They do a thing called Criss Cross Applesauce where they sit around a big rug on the floor with their legs crossed... Well, Kayden said it hurts his legs and wants to sit another way. I told him to tell her it hurts and ask to sit another way. He told me that he did ask and she has told him no. Maybe she did not understand what he meant? Who knows. The thing that made me think that it may be an issue of them not being as patient as they could be is one question that she asked me. She looked at me and asked if he has ever been in a school situation before. Ummm... yeah! I already sent him off to college! Is this not KINDERGARTEN??? Grade ZERO!!!!! I know, I realise that in todays society many many parents opt for the daycare and pre-school options. But not all of us! There are still those of us out there who choose to stay home and raise our children instead of having others do it for us (that is not intended to offend anyone who uses either of those options). I kinda was under the impressino that kindergarten is supposed to be that first school setting, you know the one where they learn what kinds of things you actually are expected to do while in school.

So I am now frustrated that the schools cannot work with our children who still act like children, who are entering a new life experience and need to adjust to it. I am sure that he is acting up, he does it at home. But he is a GOOD kid who just needs patience. He is already starting to not like school after 3 days. He needs to have somebody help him make it a good experience instead of something he gets into trouble at all the time. I hated school when I was a kid for these same reasons, my husband too for that matter. Both of us were like Kayden where we had alot of energy and it was hard to focus and sit still... Those things did not get much better with age, but we learned to cope with it and learned to do the things we needed to do. I was very hyper active as a child and my husband has ADD... Our kids don't have a chance! LOL. I just really hope that his teacher and I can come up with something to do so that he can still enjoy his experience instead of growing to hate it like he is already doing. BAH!!! I don't know what to do, I suppose if it really is not working i can pull him out and try again next year. :(