Monday, October 29, 2007

silent observer

today pooka and i had dentist appointments. she was very grumpy beforehand, but when it was actually her turn she cooperated just fine.

instead of dropping her at school and hurrying home to savor some me time empty the dishwasher, i hung out for a while to observe.

my friend becca, who is a mother of a kindergartner herself, was teaching today. she doesn't stand for any nonsense and boy, was that good to see. those kids are not getting coddled at school.

when we arrived they were just beginning handbell practice. they were seated on the floor in an arc in front of becca. i was pleased to see and hear the kids greet pooka warmly with their pet name and make room for her to sit. most of the kids managed to ignore my presence behind them, but one (the one pooka calls a she-devil) kept looking back at me and missing her cues.

after the handbell session, they got some free time and i managed to talk with becca a bit. she said that the kids are all doing really well and are ahead of where she usually expects a class to be at this point. having only 10 students really helps. but she said that because they mostly grew up together in this daycare/preschool facility, they bicker like siblings. she said they are all very familiar with which buttons to push on whom and when.

(but apparently, they love each other like siblings, too. when we showed up at school after clinic last week, a boy from her class saw her and said, "i missed you today."

[everybody now: aaawwwww])

the kids were so entertaining. at one point, s came out and sadly said, "i don't have anybody to dance with."

becca said, "you guys aren't supposed to be dancing in there, so if you don't have anyone to dance with, i don't think that's a problem."

she then related an anecdote that made me very proud of pooka and her skills. this morning while the kids were trying to read the 'morning message', they said, "we don't know that word and [pooka's] not here to tell us."

my kid's the smartest. and if you don't believe me, just ask her her friends.