Today, M mentioned in passing that she didn’t have reading. (She goes to another classroom for language arts.) This happens pretty frequently, whenever the other class has standardized testing or special projects etc.
But this time, M let it slip that she didn’t go directly back to her kindergarten class when she found out there was no reading group. She said, “I didn’t want to go back to Mrs. H’s class because I thought she would be mad that Mrs. M didn’t teach me reading today, so I walked around the hall until I thought reading time was supposed to be over.”
Under further interrogation, it appears that M entertained herself in the school hallways for an undetermined length of time by reading the bulletin boards, walking back and forth, etc.
Discovering this level of cutting class and hooliganism in kindergarten, I could see her future spread out before me: cutting class to neck in the auditorium in Jr. High and skipping school to make out under the bleachers in high school. (Oh wait, both of those were me!) Intent on foiling her deviant schemes, this evening I emailed both teachers to let them know what M was up to.
When her reading teacher emailed me back, I learned for the first time that M has had homework in that class since Xmas break. She was supposed to bring her reading books home for us to read together and discuss. M brought the books home and read them herself (I think), but never told us we were supposed to be working on them together. She never had homework in her kindergarten class, so it didn’t occur to me she had reading homework. Apparently, she told her reading teacher I was too busy to read them with her. (WTFity F??)
The 6 year old is a little to big for her britches, I think. She thinks she is getting away with something. Little does she know, I am on to her now. I am scheduling a conference with both her teachers and we will be nipping these shenanigans in the bud.
The other side of the six year old coin is that M can be utterly adorable. For her birthday, she got a Top Secret Personal Beeswax Junie B. Jones Journal. Technically, I am not supposed to read it, but I couldn’t help myself.
In a section on changing names (Did you ever wish you had a different name? What if you could change EVERYONE’s name?), she renamed me Chloee and her imaginary fish Mr. Cool. She listed Fisher as her best friend. Under Fisher’s brand new name, she wrote: “thats prfekt alreddey.”
In the “If I Were the Boss at My House”, she wrote:
-I would play outside when I feel like it.
-I would stay up really late ’cause Mommy and Daddy never let me stay up late.
-I’d control the world.
She has big dreams, that girl. She is crafty, but still cute.
Yeah, M is super cute. When I rate how cute a kid is, I usually make M the one I compare the kid to and of course, those kids never measure up to half the cuteness of little M!!! BUT, that’s amazing that she’s come up with that scheme. She’s smart enough to know how to get away with it. You’re right to nip this in the bud ASAP. Can’t wait to hear the continuing saga of our little adorable trickster!
Whoo, you’re going to be in for a fun ride with this one when she’s a teenager! =)
Hey,
I’m interested in what you are having M read now to keep in interested and busy. I’m struggling with what to pick up for Ava. We are running into an issue where her emotional processing level isn’t really up to her cognitive ability. ie. the things she can read are sort of old for her but the things geared to her level are not interesting to her and she complains are boring. We can take it offline if you have any insight.
P.
In the past few months, M has read all the Magic Treehouse books, the Flat Stanley books, and is working her way through the horribly stupid Rainbow Magic Fairies books (and the Pet Fairies). She has also read Little House in the Big Woods, Little House on the Prairie and Despereaux with me. She reads a chapter and then that night, we reread it together. Those books are all a little stretch for her (not to mention she doesn’t get some of the historical stuff)so I think the discussion helps. She also reads 1-2 science books on a topic of her choosing each trip to the library and whatever else she picks up.
Now that she is almost done with the stupid fairies, I need to find her another series. She has been resistant to trying the American Girl books, but I think she would like them if she gave them a chance.
Oh, and I forgot to add this link for the Scholastic Book Wizard: http://bookwizard.scholastic.com/tbw/homePage.do . Jody left it in my comments on an older post about reading and I find it really useful. Or rather, I would find it really useful if M would read the books I suggest. She wants to pick her own right now, so I am letting her as long as it isn’t anything horribly inappropriate.
Just a question, but what if she just isn’t ready to do homework at night? It might be too much for her, since really she’s a year younger than the other kids in that class. Before you come down on her for being a hooligan, think about maybe talking it out with her…. there’s a reason why kids don’t get homework in kindergarten.
I’ve been in that situation as a kid, and it isn’t fun to be pushed like that.
I think the problem isn’t about the homework. I think M is just too immature (and spacey!)to be responsible for accurately relaying information. Now that I know what we are supposed to be doing with the books she brings home, it shouldn’t be a problem. She reads on her own for about 1-2 hours a night, if I let her, so adding another 10 minutes won’t kill her. They still have her in a group that is a bit below her reading level anyway, so it isn’t like the books are a struggle for her.
Do you find it strange she was able to walk around without being noticed? She might make a rocket that shoots at cars. Watch out.
Sigh, Now is the time to set out the rules. You need to break the rules once in a while, but MAN, you can’t just wander around school and you can’t just blow off homework unless Mom and Dad say so (okay- we blow off that sort of reading homework ALL OF THE TIME-but that’s ‘cuz mom and dad know she can read it and we sometimes talk about comprehension)
I would talk to her and give her a chance to tell you she has had homework. Maybe she didn’t understand that it was mandatory? Maybe she felt you were too busy with L and didn’t want to upset you? Maybe she was blowing it off.
Sigh…growing up is hard
Hmm..my 2nd grader has a sheet that comes home listing homework so that the parents can see it and sign off on it each day. The idea is to train the kids to understand they have homework that has to be done. Perhaps a suggestion to the teacher that this might be good for M given she is younger would help?
I agree with Perrin on my interest in what M is reading. My 7 year old (young 2nd grader) is reading at a 5th grade level and we are rapidly running out of emotionally appropriate books.
Her teacher is working up a suggestion list for me for the summer to help. Its a real challenge as we let her read something we shouldn’t as we hadn’t read it first (and the author writes 2 different levels of books. She was quite confused (although very interested!)..and we got alot of questions. But keeping on top of her reading is difficult without reading everything too (she’ll finish a Junie book in one sitting at bedtime).
That being said M sounds adorable!
I was originally more interested in M’s social adjustment to the new class. I was waiting to talk with the teacher at the conferences next week to find out how she was doing. Via email last night, the teacher suggested a chart and we are going to talk more about it in person.
(see the comment above for more on what M is reading)
OH boy, oh, boy! (or maybe, oh, girl). How very interesting!
Kelvin usually gets in trouble by taking too long doing his work, or not doing anything, basically, especially when it’s coloring or some arts project. It’s tough, I agree.
we are totally going to be co-mothers-in-law someday.
She is undeniably off the cute (and smart) meter, but more worrying is how no one at school noticed M was wandering around by herself! Do they not take attendance? Good Lord. She could have walked out the door and gone anywhere! Something is seriously wrong at that school if a kindergartener can decide on her own to just take a walk and the teachers don’t even notice she’s gone.
Hee! Controlling the world? That would be awesome!