Mimi and Nora started Kindergarten last week. There are more parents who want their K-graders in the one all-day classroom than can fit in the classroom (even in Utah, land of HUGE class sizes). I asked for both girls to be included in the all-day program and ver, ver, ver thankfully, both of my darlings were placed in the same
class with The Divine Mis Judy, the most incredible, fabulous, organized, loving, experienced, energetic best K-grader teacher in the known world and her wonderful aide Miss Elaine. But, I still have big fears about Nora and whether she will be able to progress to first grade next year. My thinking was, shoot, I can pay grundles of money to keep her in Montessori K-grade this winter and start her in public school next fall as the oldest in her class -OR - I could save a grundle of $$$ that I simply don't have after two adoptions in 18 months what WAS I thinking and let Miss Judy take a crack at her. I just figured, hey, if she can't cut it, I'll make the decision to hold her back in K-grade next year in public school. Now I have the big guilty doubts about that strategy. If she can't advance with her peers, she will be crushed, crushed and humiliated. If she can't advance with her peers, me thinks I'll be paying grundles next fall to send her to another year of private K so at least she has a year of separation from her former peers before she has to start first grade the same time they (including her sister) are starting second.
It may just be that I end up paying later rather than sooner, but I'm going to cling to the hope that one of the BEST educators ever to sing good morning in circle time can crack her code and help her learn.
I actually had no fears about Mimi and Nora in the same class together. They play very independently of each other anyway, there isn't any strange dependence vibe happening between them. That was how they co-existed in the same class at Montessori, so I had no qualms about them spending this one year in school together in the same class.
Yeah, and when did I turn into the mean kind of mom who makes her children wear shoes to school instead of kicky fun sandals you may wonder? From always, just ask Ellie who suffers so in her sneakers when all around her are in flip flops (until it gets too cold). So, yeah, Nora looks clod-hopperish in her cute swishy skirt and HUGE shoes, but she won't be coming home with all the skin scraped off the ends of her toes and slivers from the playground wood chips embedded in the soles of her feet either. And good hell, she doesn't know how bad it looks, let me have a few more years of picking out their footwear.
4 comments:
Good hell!
What's the origin of that saying?
Is it uniquely Utah? Is is Hanson humor?
I'd never heard it before I read your blog and it never ceases to crack me up.
It sounds sooo snarky!
Teri
(from Iowa)
Teri, doesn't everyone say that? I'm sure it's not just me. I wish Amy Nash could hear it outloud and analyze it with her audiologist's skills. She could accurately describe the shape of the mouth and the sound when saying the hell part of the exclamation. So it's like oh (short, chopped off, back of throat), good hell (small h sound, big mouth full of l sound) said with as MUCH disdain as one can muster. Try it, I find it very useful in my everyday life to express a myriad of emotional reactions. Sideways smiley face, Marji
Hi Marji,
So, you are a great mom because you require that your children wear sneakers to school!
Maura in Boston, aka, Zoe's Mama
and a Kindergarten teacher who has seen way too many children trip and fall on the playground because their mom's choose to ignore my "rule" about kindergartners needing to wear sneaker to school!!
ps...I think Miss Judy sounds amazing and Nora will do fine. Sometimes, it takes the power of 17 other 5 year olds and one adult who is not mom to get kids in line...not that I'm big on lines...in my school, a snake works just fine...in fact, we do snakes, bunny hops and penguin waddles to move through the hallways! :-)
Maura, sometimes I wonder if the scrapes on their knees are because of the giant shoes, but at least their feet are intact. But oh, if wishes were fishes, we'd have a fish fry and Miss Judy would have 17 instead of 26 students to teach/herd from 8:45 to 3:15 every day. Can you imagine? And can I add, thank you, really THANK YOU, to the SAHMs and SAHDs that volunteer endless hours in the classroom, Thank You.
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