First Days of First Grade

Last Thursday marked our boy's official entrance into public school. Here's what we all learned.

While Mrs. Betty Murphy signed all correspondence with Mrs. Betty Murphy, she only wants to be called Mrs. Murphy. For a child who refers to his friends using all three names (First, Middle, Last)and is himself referred to by his friends as Firstname-Middleinitial-Lastname - this can be confusing.

Next - the class is divided into three supply lines. Rather like the military, I believe. Supply line two is responsible for Heavy Duty Tissues. Our supply line number two reported for duty with a jumbo box of 3-ply soft tissues. Supply lines one and three brought goldfish, cheerios or wheat crackers, and paper towels. Mrs. Murphy is grateful.

Finally - the end of the day and aftercare at the local Y. Right away - this is a disaster. Suzanne, our trusty sitter, makes the initial run with me so she knows where to go and the child care workers can see we all belong together. We spot him before he spots us. And Suzanne audibly inhales - the kind of sound that were it in a movie would signal misfortune for a main character.

He hates it and threatens the next day to jump off the bus and run away. I am once again wearing the crown of meanest mommy ever because I suggest that until we have something else worked out, this is the way it has to be.

In an effort to fix things I spoke with the head teacher, Miss Karisma. She told me that our boy had been fresh with her and she had corrected him following their discipline procedure. Hmmm.

She reported that she had told him "... I be doing this right now, you will need to wait." He replied "Miss Karisma, you are doing something right now and I need to wait a minute." She called it fresh and I tried to explain that he responded to her in the same way I did when he says "How much dollars is that?"... , how many dollars is the whatever-is-catching-his-eye-and-short-attention-span. He's 6, he doesn't understand nuance (and I never should have tried that word...) - we are not seeing eye-to-eye and I just want my money back for two months of care he will not be attending.

Oh dear. On the upside, he really liked P.E. and the class is beginning to chart the progress of the pilgrims on a timeline and map. He learned a new word - ballast - and he's class "inspector" for the next two weeks. The inspector checks to make sure the lights are turned out and the window shades are at "mid". Which I'm guessing is midpoint.

He is also intrigued/repelled by a game called Girl Run - which means girls chase boys around the playground. It's a game that hasn't been banned - like dodge ball.