School

Jayce has been in school for a bit over a month now, so you might be wondering how it's going.

The answer: Pretty good, I guess.

By that I mean, I have no idea. Trying to get a 3 year old boy to tell me anything about his day is as easy as I imagine it will be to get a teenage boy to tell me anything.

When I pick him up he is starving and tired, so with those two strikes against me for potential cooperation I have to be creative. Yes, I sometimes bribe, or withhold dessert, until he tells me something. That is how I find out the names of his friends or what someone took for show and tell that day.

(PS-They have show and tell every week, isn't that cute? I really want to just sit in one day! I won the bad mom award his first week because I got his days mixed up. Which means that when he had the opportunity to show something, he had nothing with him. But when I sent him with something on the wrong day, he didn't get to show it. Sorry buddy!)

The teacher sends home a sheet of paper every day with a little blip about what they did that day, who he played with, what book they read, etc. The behavior is displayed by a little stoplight that has been colored in: green-good behavior, yellow-minor trouble, red-trouble. He has only received green lights thus far, but sometimes when he's in trouble at home or doesn't want us to do something, he'll say "red light!" I wondered if the teacher used "red light" as a phrase to get them to stop whatever they are doing, so I asked.

Jayce, does your teacher ever tell your class "red light?" If you are being too loud or anything?

No Mom, she tells me and Eli "red light." (Eli is one of his best little buddies.)

Oh, were you talking during story time?

(This is a complete shot in the dark, I can just imagine the only time the teacher is trying to get a group of 3 year olds to be quiet is when she's reading.)

No Mom, we're not talking, we're laughing during animal story time. It was so funny. He giggled as he told me this last line.

For some reason I'm a little bit pleased that he's being a little ornery. This kind of "trouble" I can deal with. I'm glad that he's with his friends and enjoying his time in school. Chris and I both got in trouble for talking in school so we can't be too hard on the kid.

Yesterday when I picked him up from the school the aid told me that it was fire safety day. Apparently, when the firemen came into the classroom Jayce ran and hid under the table. He didn't cry or anything and they tried to reassure him, but apparently he remained under the table the whole time they were there.

When I asked him about it he told me that he wasn't scared of the fireman but that he didn't like them, so he hid under the table. When Chris came home he told him that he was a little bit scared of the firemen.

This is ironic because Jayce's favorite show right now is Fireman Sam, which he wants to watch every day. He watched it that morning before school and wanted to again when he got home, despite this little incident. Apparently claymation firemen are the only ones that he likes.

I am doing just fine with school now, for the most part. It is strange that he is learning things that I didn't teach him, observing things I'm unaware of, playing with kids that I don't know. But I'm focusing on the good. He is learning to respect new boundaries and rules, which I think is one of the reasons that "quiet time" has worked so well. He is being mentally and physically engaged in a way that I can't replicate at home. I am getting uninterrupted time with Hannah. I don't need to rush through feeding/changing/playing with her, and can do whatever she (and I) need.

That said, school is going good.