Our weekend was busy and we are enjoying the pick up in our life outside the house but I think that so much out of the house activity is tough on Julia. It means that she is out of her familiar zone and although we pack toys and activities for her, she is not as free as she is at home and All her stuff is not with her. The result is behavior deterioration. Last night, we went to a pot luck at Chis and Andy's house. They have 2 kids, both older than Julia but still with plenty of toys, and another family with a little girl who was a bit younger than Julia was there as well. Julia enjoyed the kids and the toys she doesn't have but she let loose with a yell a few times and was very bossy with the kids. I think that the only way to teach her how to behave in company is to be in company, but it can be exhausting.
I am exhausted this morning.
Last Friday, I went into Julia's classroom to help with some administrative stuff and to be another grownup as the kids did writing workshop. Christy, the teacher, begins the workshop by reading a story. I am guessing that there is some style theme -- last week's was see-saw writing, as in, I wear shorts in summer, but I wear pants in winter, or, Birds have mommies but trees don't have mommies. The kids then are given a number of exercises and the most advanced amonng them are expected to do all of the exercises. Last Friday, there were two assignments: the first was to complete two sides of a paper. The first side had the question, "Do _______ have a family?", and the second side said, "Yes, _____ have a family just like us." The child had to draw and write the name of an animal and follow through with the second side where the animal's name was written again and the whole family was drawn. This was one complete side of the see saw.
The second activity was to take a little "book" (simple quarter sheet books with paper covers, stapled together) and write a see saw story. My group of three kids got through the first exercise and some of the completed the second. I had one eye on Julia and she was able to get through the first exercise but not the second. And she still need the one-on-one prompting to get her through the assignment. Now, to be honest, even my group benefited greatly from the one-on-one. I think that only one of them would have finished both exercises if I had not be prompting them.
We have teacher conferences this week, and I will be very relieved to sit down with Christy and find out where Julia is. She is moving ahead -- we work on spelling all the time at her prompting -- but is it enough? And will she catch up? Yes, I am obsessed with her catching up and being normal. Maybe crazy as it seems, I will not give up on that idea. Maybe someone needs to knock me on the side of the head but I still believe in her intelligence and her imagination.
But I do see that she does not act like the other kids.
After writing workshop, the class went outside for recess with another class. The two classes stood together on the outline of a circle and sang silly songs that their teachers took turns leading. In one sense, this is the kind of activity that Julia should excell in but she was unable to stand in that circle -- this is the same basic behavior that made me give up on choir. Although Julia loves to sing, she seems unable to stay in an loosely assigned place and pay attention. Will she learn that? She was not disruptive during the singing, just not attending.
More wondering later. I have assignments of my own today.
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