Family Friday indeed.
It is “family Friday” at C’s school. The kids are gathered on the reading rug and a parent is reading the Polar Express. All the kids are thrilled to listen to the book, except C, who says very loudly, “I don’t like that book.” The kindergarten teacher remarks that “somebody must have taken his opinion beans this morning.” I’m totally embarrassed. After the read-aloud the kids go back to their tables and make home-made play-dough. C is trying to be the first one to do everything – stir the flour, pour in the water; next, he’s stealing little table toys from his table-mate. I am certain all the other parents are thinking, I never want my kid having a playdate with this kid. I am boiling over.
I take C out into the hallway to give him a talking-to and peruse the art and writing projects on the wall. His writing is amazing. Kindergarten pedagogy these days is all about “invented spelling,” a teaching method that involves children writing out the words as they believe they are spelled. Which is interesting; sometimes vowels are involved, sometimes not. C has written and illustrated a 5-page book about Christmas (“Crismis”). I’m Jewish and I secretly loathe Christmas but I’ve decided I don’t care because he’s written strings of words and sentences all by himself: “a book a biwt Crismis” (a book about Christmas); “Crismss plaig wif the praisis” (Christmas, playing with the presents) . He has drawn intricate pictures of Santa wrapping presents in our basement and of him and his little brother opening presents by the tree (“tree”) (yes!). As I leave the school two parents mention that we should get the kids together for playdates – the calling card of a stay-at-home-mom – so I guess C’s OK after all.
After Family Friday I take Z to a drop-in music class and speed him home for nap and lunch and then I wake him up just in time to get C from kindergarten at the ridiculously early pick-up time and we all have a snack and venture to the dollar store to buy decorations for C’s “super reader” cape. We douse the cape and also the kitchen table in plenty of glitter glue and then I boil some pasta and warm up some sauce and by the time T gets home at 6:45 the house is a mess and I’m pretty much ready to call it quits, even though I’ve committed myself to a ridiculous amount of baking for two separate social events tomorrow.