Hitting--The Yellow Light

The hitting didn't stop! Wednesday when I picked Grace up from the second day of summer pre-K, the teachers told me that she was having trouble "keeping her hands to herself." Eventually, they told me that not only was she touching everyone, but she and several other children were hitting. I talked to Gracie about not hitting, but since I'm not there, the teachers are going to have to enforce their rules with her. She knows that I will "make her sedni" if she hits at home, so she doesn't. I really think it will stop at school if they do the same consistently. I told them exactly that.

Well on Thursday, Gracie came home telling me that she was crying and the boy pushed her. I couldn't get a clear story, so I put her in the car and took her to school. I followed her through the corridors to the playground while she repeated urgently, "Come here, Mommy. I show you." I gathered from the way that she climbed up on the blue bench by the playground that something happened outside and that she sat on the bench crying, but that was about it.

Today, Friday, I took her to school a little early to find out what had transpired. The story was, that Grace had walked right up to a boy on the playground and hit him in the middle of the back for no reason, while the boy was talking to the teacher. Way to be sneaky and subtle, Gracie! Obviously, this was not a provoked reaction. She planned retaliation. She says the boy pushed her, but who knows? the teacher put her on the bench in time out, and Gracie started crying, "No sedni, I want my Mommy!" (Okay, I thought the Mommy part was awesome.) It gets worse. After a couple of minutes, they noticed that she was playing with the kids on the playground again. She had gotten up and ignored their time out. The teacher put her back on the bench again, and she was even more unhappy, crying and saying that she wanted to go play.

On Friday, two children tattled that Gracie had hit them, but since the teacher didn't see her either time, they didn't give her a time-out. But the biggest surprise came when I went through the papers in her backpack and found her behavior chart. The teachers gave her a red reward ribbon and a smile for her behavior every day this week. When I questioned it, they said, "Well, she wasn't any worse than the rest of them." It must have been a rough week!

Grace has been exhausted at noon each day, which I'm sure doesn't help her behavior at school. She is fussy at lunchtime, putting her thumb in her mouth at the table, and has been sleeping about 3 hours every afternoon. She threw two more tantrums this week between the time that I picked her up from school and her nap that starts around 1:30. Grace says that she likes school and seems anxious to go every day, but I think the whole process of separation from me and the routine/expectation changes are weighing heavy on her. Even though I am seeing some changes academically--she can write the first four letters of her name and is recognizing more letters every day--I'm already convinced that pre-K is a better placement for her than kindergarten for next year. I don't think she can physically handle the strenuousness of the kindergarten schedule. And life is much better when she is rested! Even if she is ready for kindergarten, I don't think I'm ready.

Finishing my homework...Notice that I am writing the letter "M" and coloring in the lines!