Thursday, August 24, 2006
Even astronauts have to eat lunch
So it's Book Week. One of the many school activities related to it was a 'whole school assembly' on Wednesday. The kids were encouraged to dress up as a favourite book character. D'Arcy decided to just dress up. As an astronaut. I guess there's lots of space related non-fiction out there. He's too young for 2001, and refused to be Curious George ("I am not a monkey"). There is another photo at Flickr of the rest of his costume.
The assembly was fun. I hadn't been to one yet, so it was an eye opener for me. All those kids sitting more or less quietly on mats on the floor for 45 mins. Wild. There was an invited speaker (an ex student, now in his 60s, who has written a book) who got heckled (by D'Arcy) and wasn't quite sure how to respond. As one of the other kindy teachers pointed out, it meant that at least he was listening to what the bloke was saying. I hid.
We spent the weekend sick in bed. D'Arcy came home on Friday night from a play date with a high temperature, and by Saturday the spewing was on. We read all of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in between sleeps and by the evening he was much better. I think it was one of those developmental sicknesses that he gets sometimes. His reading has improved again. He got moved up a level last week, but wasn't happy about it, as it meant reading harder books. In fact, it seems that the books aren't much harder, and his confidence has improved, so he's going quite well.
The other thing that is going on is that his dad is moving to the farm this week. Tomorrow will be his first night out there. he has very mixed feelings about it. He doesn't want to leave the house where he was born which has been his stable home base since our separation, but he is excited at the prospect of farm life, epecially all the animals that they will get. He's also looking forward to his dad getting him a 'supertool'. He's not 100% happy that his dad's girlfriend and her daughter will be there all the time (especially the daughter who is 6 months younger - there is lots of competition) but I think ultimately it will be good for him to have that sibling kind of relationship where he gets to figure out the whole sharing deal. They play well together a lot of the time.
I've been loving helping in class. I've started helping with writing some days too, and that is pretty fascinating. It's been a learning curve for me, as the writing bit wasn't very well covered in the 'parent classroom helpers' course I did. But I'm getting the hang of how it works. There was a fantastic breakthrough with one child today - he's a bit younger than his peers and his family isn't as well tuned as some, so he's been missing lots of school, but the last week or so, he's been gettting there on time most days, and today he did some writing that demonstrated just how consisitency can help. He wrote "I dressed up as a policeman" for his news book. Of course it was more "I drst up as u polismun" but that is the beginning of writing as they teach it. The teacher was so pleased with it, she got him to come and show it to me, and to show it to the other kindy teacher next door. I remember her making a similar fuss when D wrote his first intelligible sentence, and I think it makes a difference for them.
D'Arcy wrote "I dress up as a astronaut. I eevun had u helmut"
The assembly was fun. I hadn't been to one yet, so it was an eye opener for me. All those kids sitting more or less quietly on mats on the floor for 45 mins. Wild. There was an invited speaker (an ex student, now in his 60s, who has written a book) who got heckled (by D'Arcy) and wasn't quite sure how to respond. As one of the other kindy teachers pointed out, it meant that at least he was listening to what the bloke was saying. I hid.
We spent the weekend sick in bed. D'Arcy came home on Friday night from a play date with a high temperature, and by Saturday the spewing was on. We read all of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in between sleeps and by the evening he was much better. I think it was one of those developmental sicknesses that he gets sometimes. His reading has improved again. He got moved up a level last week, but wasn't happy about it, as it meant reading harder books. In fact, it seems that the books aren't much harder, and his confidence has improved, so he's going quite well.
The other thing that is going on is that his dad is moving to the farm this week. Tomorrow will be his first night out there. he has very mixed feelings about it. He doesn't want to leave the house where he was born which has been his stable home base since our separation, but he is excited at the prospect of farm life, epecially all the animals that they will get. He's also looking forward to his dad getting him a 'supertool'. He's not 100% happy that his dad's girlfriend and her daughter will be there all the time (especially the daughter who is 6 months younger - there is lots of competition) but I think ultimately it will be good for him to have that sibling kind of relationship where he gets to figure out the whole sharing deal. They play well together a lot of the time.
I've been loving helping in class. I've started helping with writing some days too, and that is pretty fascinating. It's been a learning curve for me, as the writing bit wasn't very well covered in the 'parent classroom helpers' course I did. But I'm getting the hang of how it works. There was a fantastic breakthrough with one child today - he's a bit younger than his peers and his family isn't as well tuned as some, so he's been missing lots of school, but the last week or so, he's been gettting there on time most days, and today he did some writing that demonstrated just how consisitency can help. He wrote "I dressed up as a policeman" for his news book. Of course it was more "I drst up as u polismun" but that is the beginning of writing as they teach it. The teacher was so pleased with it, she got him to come and show it to me, and to show it to the other kindy teacher next door. I remember her making a similar fuss when D wrote his first intelligible sentence, and I think it makes a difference for them.
D'Arcy wrote "I dress up as a astronaut. I eevun had u helmut"
# posted by Mummy/Crit : 7:15 PM
