So. As I may or may not have mentioned before, Dale starts preschool tomorrow. If blogger had smilies, I would put one in here with it's eyes bugged open and its mouth in a little "o". And it's not because of the proverbial I'm-in-tears-because-I-just-dropped-off-my-baby-for-the-first-day-of-school-ever type thing. Nah. I might feel that way tomorrow...I don't expect to, but I might. No, what I feel now is pure fear and not knowing what in the world my child might do or say in a room full of other children. Without me present.
Don't get me wrong: Dale is a good kid. But Dale is .... loud. Dale is .... exuberant. I looked it up to make sure I've been using it right:
exuberant - characterized by good health and high spirits; full of life; uninhibited
Yep. That's Dale.
Dale has never met a stranger.
Dale gets excited.
At first I was only mildly concerned about how Dale would fare out on his own. And then I got to the last page of the information packet:
"This year we will send home daily behavior reports for your child." Uh-oh.
It's color coded.
Green - Awesome day!
Blue - Good day - only one verbal warning.
Purple - Pretty good day - I have been warned two times, and if I have to be told again, I will have to go to time out.
Yellow - We are still doing OK. I have been told twice. I had to sit in time out in front of my friends.
Orange - Not so hot. I have been warned 4 times and I had to sit in time out and stand at the wall for a few minutes at recess.
Red - TROUBLE! I had to go to the director's office. I better get my act together ASAP!
Like I said - Dale is a good kid. The director assured us all at the orientation meeting last night that the kids get plenty of warnings. I honestly don't ever expect to see orange or red. And hopefully not yellow. Dale just hasn't been around a lot of kids. And he loves kids. Did I mention he gets excited? Mr. Exuberance and all. I think its the 'uninhibited high spirits'.
He did pretty good at the orientation last night. Had a hard time keeping his goldfish crackers off of the floor, and bonked the kid behind him on the head with a balloon, but other than that... lol. Oh yeah, and everything he said he felt the need to BE REALLY LOUD. He told his teacher "I HAVE LIGHTENING MCQUEEN ON MY SHIRT!" and "YES! I'M DONE WITH MY PICTURE!"
We were told last night that the kids will start each day with the pledge of allegiance. Since Dale doesn't know it, we said it a few times together this morning. Now I know why teachers of little kids everywhere start the day with the pledge. It's not that they are overly patriotic or anything. Nope. They've got to be using it for laughs. Better endorphins than any cup of coffee, I'm sure. Imagine a roomful of little kids mangling words like 'allegiance', 'republic', 'United States of America', and 'indivisible'. Here was Dale's version this morning, repeating after me (and he is usually a very clear and fairly easy to understand speaker!):
"I pledge allidgence ...to the flag... of the United States of America. And to the replublic ...for which it stands... one nation... under God... indabibable... with liverty and justice for all." (I can't blame him for the 'liverty' part...there is a lot of talk about livers around here). He's still pretty shaky on the whole thing, but at least maybe that's one part of the day that he won't be shouting! :)
2 comments:
Well, I don't know about any other teachers, but that is certainly why I have my first graders say the pledge every day! :-) If you think that is good, let him listen to Enya (most of it is in Celtic) and then listen to what he says when he "sings" along. Absolutely FABULOUS!!
I will pray for you and Dale tomorrow. It might hit harder than you think...or it might not! :-)
Hahahaha!!! Oh, Dale.
The 'liverty' part really cracked me up. :)
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