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| Flower |
Monday, November 12, 2012
Friday, November 9, 2012
Things I Never Thought I'd Discuss with my 5 year old...
Kindergarten seems a lot more "involved" than I remember it being 35 years ago when I was 5. Annabelle is learning to read, do math equations, work on a Mac computer, write sentences and multiple other things that I don't think I even knew about until I was in second or third grade. But she's also learning a few other life lessons that I had no idea we would be dealing with at age 5.
We've been dealing with a bit of bullying from one girl in her class. At first I blew it off and told her to just stay away from the girl. Every day at school pick up Annabelle would hop in the car and start complaining about this same girl, how she cut in line, pushed her, told her mean things, told on her. I just kept up my usual advice of "stay away from this girl and she will leave you alone". But after over two weeks of constant complaining I decided it was time to take action, so I spoke to A's teacher. She assured me that she had no idea this was going on and she would take care of it. Needless to say, the situation has not gotten any better...actually, it has gotten a bit worse, the teacher decided to move Annabelle to the same table as the "bully" and now she has to sit next to her every day. I'm thinking about enrolling Annabelle in some martial arts classes to help build her self esteem.
Annabelle's teacher also pointed out that she and another little girl in the class are the only "white" kids. Of course Annabelle asked me about this immediately when I picked her up from school that day. She had no idea she was "white" or what race she is. Most Kindergarteners don't see color or difference. Now we've had many, many conversations about how "all people are just people no matter what color they are".
We've also been struggling with appearance. Annabelle insists that the other little girls wear a lot of jewelry to school. We've had many fights about how school is not a place where Kindergarteners need to wear jewelry, actually is there anywhere that a 5 year old needs to wear a lot of jewelry??? She has also been VERY concerned with the appearance of her hair. I was baffled with this one, for years she hasn't cared what her hair looked like, often times she would leave the house with five different color barrettes in her hair or a crazy headband or even unbrushed hair that was standing straight up! Suddenly she is concerned with her hair looking "perfect". As we were getting ready for school one day she was in tears about how "imperfect" her hair was, at this point I finally asked her to tell what was really going on with her hair and she finally told me that the "bully" at school had told her that her hair was messy....uggghhh, will it never end?
And so we just deal with the obstacles day by day...I can't imagine how much worse this is going to get when she's in middle school!
We've been dealing with a bit of bullying from one girl in her class. At first I blew it off and told her to just stay away from the girl. Every day at school pick up Annabelle would hop in the car and start complaining about this same girl, how she cut in line, pushed her, told her mean things, told on her. I just kept up my usual advice of "stay away from this girl and she will leave you alone". But after over two weeks of constant complaining I decided it was time to take action, so I spoke to A's teacher. She assured me that she had no idea this was going on and she would take care of it. Needless to say, the situation has not gotten any better...actually, it has gotten a bit worse, the teacher decided to move Annabelle to the same table as the "bully" and now she has to sit next to her every day. I'm thinking about enrolling Annabelle in some martial arts classes to help build her self esteem.
Annabelle's teacher also pointed out that she and another little girl in the class are the only "white" kids. Of course Annabelle asked me about this immediately when I picked her up from school that day. She had no idea she was "white" or what race she is. Most Kindergarteners don't see color or difference. Now we've had many, many conversations about how "all people are just people no matter what color they are".
We've also been struggling with appearance. Annabelle insists that the other little girls wear a lot of jewelry to school. We've had many fights about how school is not a place where Kindergarteners need to wear jewelry, actually is there anywhere that a 5 year old needs to wear a lot of jewelry??? She has also been VERY concerned with the appearance of her hair. I was baffled with this one, for years she hasn't cared what her hair looked like, often times she would leave the house with five different color barrettes in her hair or a crazy headband or even unbrushed hair that was standing straight up! Suddenly she is concerned with her hair looking "perfect". As we were getting ready for school one day she was in tears about how "imperfect" her hair was, at this point I finally asked her to tell what was really going on with her hair and she finally told me that the "bully" at school had told her that her hair was messy....uggghhh, will it never end?
And so we just deal with the obstacles day by day...I can't imagine how much worse this is going to get when she's in middle school!
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| Some of the girls from Annabelle's Ballet Class |
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| Sophie & Annabelle |
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| Rapunzel and Flynn Rider |
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