We have a little clown amongst us. Just like Daddy!
I found myself at another parent-teacher community meeting this past Sunday. What's funny is that it's already the second one I've attended this semester, and many of us agree that perhaps we need
more communication.
But my reasons are different from others. I noticed that the skyrocketing trajectory of Prism's language skills have sloped a bit. She talks more than ever, but she makes mistakes such as "Dudn't" and "Gived." Where she was an ace at recognizing letters and numbers, now she is not as interested. I'm not totally alarmed that her grammar skills seem to be regressing, it's more like her focus is changing to more socializing activities. But I have no idea what is going on when she's in school because she doesn't talk about it and she doesn't come home with artwork anymore.
I have wondered if her preschool is a glorified day care, which isn't a huge deal at this age. But I've wondered.
Apparently at this age it's not about academic skills but her development is in group think and group activities. Setting the table, waiting for her turn, letting others speak, having tasks to do, saying "Please" and "Thank you," moving from an ego-centric world into one that includes awareness and empathy for others.
The head teacher told us parents that one main challenge at this age, as a result of the group dynamics, is that there is a lot of "shooting" and calling others "Poopy-head" and once in awhile a kid who heard a swear word spreads it like a meme. What she wants us parents to do is to let them explore their words but redirect the ones that are not-so-nice. Avoid saying "shouldn't" and "don't" because doing so means that certain words are powerful and our job is to deflect and encourage better words.
Uhh...difficult! I do appreciate the advice. So, perhaps the preschool is teaching these kids some helpful skills, if not so much in the area of language.
***
I looked at the walls of her preschool room today. There is an abundance of artwork, none of them bearing her name. The major kid-requested theme right now is about space, so the teachers are exploring many aspects of it in their curriculum and activities. Prism seems uninterested: she doesn't talk about it after school and there is no documented interaction with her in relation to rocket ships, stars and solar system maps.
Yet, every single birthday party that comes up includes Prism in the kid-requested invitation list with an explanation to me, "My son/daughter
insisted on inviting Prism." I have heard this from moms as many times as there are kids. She has left a huge impression on her peers and their parents.
I wondered if her influence was due to being there nearly full time (four days a week); I found out at the meeting that most of the others in preschool the same amount of time.
What I gather from looking at the walls of her preschool room is that at preschool she's not an outspoken idea-person. Not a painter. Not an applied artist. There is nothing with her name on any item in that room. It's bizarre.
I wrote earlier about her ability to recite entire scenes from kid's movies. I wrote how last year she stood on a step-stool and recited a scene word for word in her phonetically broken English, from a silly Disney movie about a rat who's also a chef. She breaks into song and drama scenes on an hourly basis.
One thing I do see is that she likes to be a clown and performer. She heads off on her own and makes up stories. She gets the other kids together to sing songs and dance. Her current contribution to the school is
theatrical.
***
I also found out that she likes to play with two baby dolls there, both dark-skinned. Hm.
