I am having trouble adjusting to this new work at home lifestyle. I went from having too much time on my hands to having not enough. Where is the happy medium. I never realized how busy I am being a wife and mother until I lost all the contemplation time I had. I love contemplation time. You might call it watching TV, reading, blogging, gardening, staring out into space thinking of things.
I have been so busy today that here and now at 10:30PM I am drinking wine and writing a blog post instead of going to bed. I have to get up at 10 til 6AM tomorrow and I usually like to have a good bit of sleep. Today I am feeling like I need a good bit of contemplation instead.
Lily's school thing seems to be working itself out. She loves school. Her teacher works harder than most 20 teachers put together. Lily comes home and works hard on her homework, wanting very much to get it right. Who am I to throw a wrench in the mix. I may have taught Lily to read, but. I taught her the memorization method and at school she is learning phonics. The vocabulary that her teacher uses and uses to test Lily is unfamiliar to Lily. She therefore tested poorly. Everyday she is catching on to this vocabulary and phonics stuff. Knowing how to read most of the words she is sounding out is an advantage. She still has to sound out some words and she understands this concept. I am so excited she is learning at school. I think that the entire school uses this phonics system and so learning it the teacher's way is going to be advantages throughout her elementary education.
I guess I have decided to not talk to the teacher about the difference between my impression of Lily's abilities and the results of her test. Her teacher is very A personality. Like Lily, they should be best friends. The teacher works so hard and everything in the class is just so. They have so much structure and the pace is so fast. It is just right for Lily. It took her awhile to adjust.
Every day Lily comes home and tells me or her stuffed animals about how much she wants to yell at her teacher. Whenever a kid gets in trouble it makes Lily so mad. The teacher has a system of colored tickets, you start on green and if you have to pull a ticket you go down to blue, then yellow, then orange, the red. Red means you have to go to the principal. Lily came home on blue one time. She was blowing in other kid's faces and would not stop when asked. She thought it was funny. Lily had to pull her ticket. Every other day of the entire year she has come home on green. but, that one day, oh boy.
Whenever another child has to pull a ticket I think it reminds Lily of how it felt. She wants to yell at the teacher. Or hit the teacher. Sometimes she tells her stuffed animals about how all the kids should scream at the teacher, you are mean, we don't want to pull our tickets. It hurts our feelings, etc. She will go on and on about this. Daily. I love her never say die attitude. I want to join her on the no pulling tickets picket line. But, I tell her that the teacher is trying to help the kids to remember their manners. I tell Lily how much her teacher likes her and how great it is at school and how she is so lucky to have such a great teacher. She looks at me like I have two heads. I wonder if my propaganda will ever work? I can't believe I am sticking up for the man (teacher is actually a woman) against my own little rebel. On the inside I am with her.
Lily and I are on the mend. She has been back in school since Monday. I am able to sleep through the night. Jeff came home from work today sick. He is distraught as this is the 3rd time he has been sick in a year. Previously not having been sick three times in his entire life. He says there must be nasty awful bugs and viruses here in Mississippi, I said, you have a young daughter dude. She picks it up and passes it all to us. He said, oh. I thought I would have built up an immunity with all the sickness from Mandy's younger years. Appears not. Joy. Poor Lily has had one thing after another since school began. She handles it well and fights it off, but I don't think she has been completely well in a very long time.
Weird trivia, Lily has never had an antibiotic - military is stingy. Mandy has only had them a couple of times long ago. Weird, huh.
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4 comments:
Be glad no antibiotic, because when they really do need them then they will work. Jake has had an antibiotic twice, both times for strepe. Glad your all feeling better.
Jake has a similar discipline plan at his school, except it is green yellow, red. He so far he has come home with 2 reds, many yellows, and a few greens! His problem is he won't stop talking, imagine that, the kid who would not talk at all until almost 3yrs old. Oh and he hit someone who stole his shovel at the sand box! So now we are bribbing him...he has a wrapped present waiting to be opened but he has to ear three greens in a row...today might be the day. It has been sitting in his room way up high, for over 2 weeks! KIDS ARE SO MUCH FUN!!!!!
James had a teacher just like that last year and it turned out to be a very good thing for him. I hope Lily has a wonderful year. At James's school, they use "card flipping" for discipline. Everyone starts on Green, then they flip to yellow (when trouble starts), then it would be red, with a note home, and then black with a conference call home.
James had a teacher just like that last year and it turned out to be a very good thing for him. I hope Lily has a wonderful year. At James's school, they use "card flipping" for discipline. Everyone starts on Green, then they flip to yellow (when trouble starts), then it would be red, with a note home, and then black with a conference call home.
I would suggest that you validate Lily's feelings by telling her that you understand how she could feel the way she does, but sometimes "you have to do what you have to do, but you don't have to like it."
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