School ramblings

William is growing up! When he was younger (age 4), he couldn't talk about his day. It was too much for him. I think it's hard for little kids to remember the crazy facts that adults will solicit for after the first few days of daycare or preschool. What did you do today? I don't know. What did you eat for lunch? I don't know. It's not that they don't want to talk about it. They just seriously can't remember. Their little brains are gathering so much information and they don't realize they're supposed to retain stupid little facts about what they ate and what they did and what they learned. They just EAT and DO and LEARN - in the moment and move on with their fun lives.

Last year (kindergarten - age 5) we found a balance. He couldn't volunteer information about his day upon request but I could ask questions and he could answer them. Did you have gym today? Yes. Did you eat all your sandwich? No. Did you play with so-in-so at recess? Yes. Then often he'd come up with things to tell me when we'd snuggle at night before bed. So-in-so has a cow in their backyard that woke them up with it's moo-ing in the middle of the night. There are aliens in the haunted house behind the playground. So-in-so killed an invisible alien today but it was invisible so I couldn't see it. Always interesting these stories... and they often led to conversations intended to solicit just a tiny bit of critical thinking from my gullible young one.

So now we're in 1st grade (age 6) and he's a bit older. He gets that I want a few nuggets about the day and he's more willing to share. He had three things to tell me today - unsolicited. I won't go into detail about them all - just one.

I can't write it clearly because it didn't make sense totally. He seemed to be saying "pat on the back" but was clapping like a "round of applause"... so I'm not exactly sure what words were said but there was clapping as a form of praise.

He said, "Ms. T told us to give ourselves a (round of APPLAUSE) and everyone clapped. Then I said, 'Everyone give Ms. T a (round of APPLAUSE)' and she said 'Thank You!'" He was BEAMING and then gave me a hug so hard it hurt us both.

I love that about him. What 1st grader does that on their 2nd day of school?! She gave them praise and it made him feel good so he immediately gives her praise that I'm sure made her feel good. I'm telling you. He's a natural born leader that one.

He's also always thinking outside the box (especially for bedtime snacks). Do you want A or B? C. No. How about D? No - you can have A or B. That's it. Nothing else. Pick one or you get nothing.

It makes for interesting parenting because I love that about him and it will serve him well later in life but there are plenty of times I want him INSIDE that box. So sometimes he gets C and sometimes he has to pick from A and B no matter how wonderfully creative C is.

One last story:
He had to pick 5 words to describe himself on his homework tonight. Here they are:

1) LOVE TEACHER (how cute!)
2) HAPPY
3) FRIENDLY
4) FUN
5) SMART