Well, D was rearing to go back to preschool yesterday (asking for chocolate chip pancakes all the while). When we arrived I noticed each child drop a ball into the "show & tell" basket. We didn't bring a ball so I asked D "were you supposed to bring a ball today?" (It IS B week) He stared at me blankly and I felt annoyed that they must have expected 3 yr olds to remember for 5 days what they should bring for show & tell the next time. That's unreasonable, I thought. Then I worried. All the other children seemed to remember. Maybe D wasn't paying attention! Or, Horror! Maybe he has an incredibly bad memory for a 3 year old! Well, I asked another mommy on her way out and she mentioned the "newsletter" which apparently didn't make it home with us last week.
For those 3 hours I worried about poor D. Every child has a ball but him. I should have known, I should have asked. It's all my fault. Will he feel left out? Will he feel ashamed? Will his teacher think less of him? (not likely!) This only grew when I came for pick up and all the children were walking back from the playground carrying their ball. "Poooooooooooor D!! My baby is so left out! What did he play while all the other kids had balls?" Then I spied him, walking, skipping even, as happily as could be, carrying a paper banana! (remember, it's B week) He couldn't have cared less about a silly ball. Wouldn't it be great if we could all be happy with what we've got? And not worry so much about being just like everyone else? Lesson learned from 3 year old, yet again!
That said, I do know next week we will be bringing something yellow for show & tell (maybe that paper banana?).
I laugh at myself because my only issue in dealing with having a preschooler (besides a cranky tired boy at the end of the day) is that little bit of loss of control. Maybe not control, but knowledge....connection.....okay, maybe it is control. I don't know exactly what happened while he was there. What are the words to the song they sang? Did he say please & thank you at snack time? Is he sharing? Is he outgoing or shy with the other children? When he told me the teacher said they needed to use their inside voices, was she saying it to the whole class, or was she really saying it to him? You can ask questions all day long and only get so much information. There are things he doesn't even remember, or think about telling me and it's honestly driving me crazy. I am sure I will get used to it. Growing pains I guess. For now I am busy stressing about small, unimportant thing like how many crackers he ate and how on earth he got paint on the seat of his pants.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment