On August 11th, the girls started Kindergarten. Although they had been going to preschool a few mornings a week prior to this, it was a big step for mama and for Sofia and lilian as well. Kindergarten in Georgia starts way too early and lasts way too long: 7:45 am to 2:25 pm. They do allow the parents to come and visit for lunch, which I have been taking advantage of on a virtually daily basis.
The first day was a day full of tears, mama's tears, while Sofia was just pale going into the class room. Papa was there too, mainly to support dagmar. It was hard to let go for all I think. The first few weeks were rough for Sofia. First she was so sad, she would cry in the classroom, and it seemed like the teachers weren't too cuddly or warm and fuzzy, which didn't help. One day I dropped them off at the classroom, and as I left Sofia wanted to show me something which I wasn't really allowed. She started crying so I left, thinking she would stop as soon as I was out of sight. however, I heard her sobbing for several minutes, and when i peeked in, lilian saw me and pretty much collapsed crying (she is our drama queen). that was a 2-3 hour recovery trip that I hopefully won't make again.
Lilian loves to obey, which made the transition for her quite easy. Sofia, however had a hard time adn showed this by being overwhelmingly defiant. She'd even tell the teacher, 'I am in charge, not you', or ' I don't need to listen to you, you are not my mom (or teacher to other people)'. I almost fell off the chair when i heard that. So we asked Mrs. Plaisance to send a daily not about Sofia's behavior and followed up every day. We also made her apologize for the bad behavior with a card, and made both the girls thank their teachers every afternoon. Within a few days there was dramatic improvement, and the girls' thank you's with big hugs and smiles must have melted both Mrs. Plaisance's and Mrs. Bassett's hearts, such that they seem to have all warmed up to eachother. Lilian said: 'Mrs. Plaisance smiles more at me every time I smile at her', and I thought of a scripture that says' We love Him because He loved us first'. That is truly how it works if you have a hard time with someone, isn't it. Just keep at showing them kindness first and they will return it someday. Hard to do sometimes though, unfortunately i am only human! :)
Anyway, after a few weeks they were back to happily skipping through the day as opposed to dreadfully telling me they weren't feeling well, hoping they could stay home.
I was very surprised at all the things the girls are learning in school, as it is still just Kindergarten. they have almost 100 sightwords, most of which they are timed at reading, they read and write all kinds of quite advanced stuff, and learn a lot about history, geography, math, science and what not. I have helped quite a few times with literacy tubs and math tubs, where bingo (number/coins/rhyming words...etc) was a favorite learning game. The helping times have been fun in seeing how they learn, simly seeing the girls in a class setting and also helpful in showing me how other 5-yr-olds behave. Fun!
The pictures show their first day at school, mom crying on the 1st day, Sofia's apology note, and some Christmas pictures with a few friends.
No comments:
Post a Comment