"he asks 'why' a lot."
i can see it written on the page in front of her: "hvorfor? hvorfor? hvorfor?"
"why? why? why? and i can tell he doesn't always accept my explanations, so i just continue to answer him. is this something you recognize in him, from home?"
"oh yeah," greg and i both answer.
an excerpt from this morning's parent-teacher conference. to clarify, his teacher was not criticizing, though i do think they've had to say to him at times, "this is just how we do it. when it's lunch time, we all sit down and we eat together." for example.
otherwise, he is getting along with the children in his class. the kids (though i assume it's mostly the boys who take advantage of this) are allowed to wrestle there (something i imagine to be off-limits in most preschools in the u.s.), and he does so frequently with his friends, but also, they climb trees and imagine up adventurous scenarios in the woods lining their playground. and, she said, he speaks with only a small accent when he speaks danish. given that i'm the worst offender when it comes to a bad accent, i was happy to hear this. tomorrow he goes on another field trip.
after the conference, greg and i stood outside the school filling out our ballots for the presidential election. mine arrived long ago at our former address, but his never did. one simple email (well, two, because i first emailed the wrong clerk) was all it took to update our address and have them send him a new ballot, which arrived this morning. wisconsin is good like that.
after class i rode to the post office-- one near the train station, which i never realized existed until today, which makes me so happy, because it's much easier to get to than the one we've visited in the past where the clerks were not so friendly. i was so excited to get the ballots into the mail. "do you know how long they should take to get there?" i asked her. "about 3 or 4 days." relief! it's done! we voted and our ballots will arrive with time to spare.
the rest of the day seemed to flow like many before it, except greg got home a little earlier than lately's usual, henry was in a much finer mood and easy to get to bed, and, unprompted, william was a motivated helper ("i'll help you get those clothes mama, and then i'll come back and brush my teeth." "henry, you haven't brushed your teeth yet, have you? (offering him a banana before bed.))
and as william was brushing his teeth, he said to me with a mouth full of toothpaste, "we had such a good today, didn't we?" it caught me off guard, i laughed. your heart sort of fills up when you hear your child say something like that. "yes, we really did," i answered.
2 comments:
A wonderful depiction of a good day!
Did the teacher speak to you in English? Was she different than what you'd expect from an American teacher? Is it a public school? Does your guy like her? So cool that he feels so well integrated, the "whys" notwithstanding!
hi nina,
thanks!
to answer your questions-- she asked us if we should do the conference in danish or english-- we opted for english, figuring if there was anything important, we'd understand it that way. his danish teachers don't seem too different from his english preschool teachers. i'm always impressed how upbeat certain people can be working with twenty 3 and 4 year olds, day in and day out. william does like his teachers (there are 3 in his class), but there was a temporary teacher there when he first started and through the summer, who he just could not get along with for some reason. i think he was going through the big adjustment of a new school in a new country with a new language and was feeling slightly rebellious at that time. and it didn't work well with her, though i could definitely see her trying to get along with him. he just wasn't having it. yes, a public preschool and nursery! i learned later that i could have sent them (well, not considering a probable waiting list) to a waldorf school not too far away for about the same price as the public schools, but i'm happy with our choice.
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