Hunter: A Kindergarten Update

We're now two full weeks into Kindergarten. That's it two weeks. Do I really need to say what all has happened in that two weeks? Seriously it's only been two weeks.

Let's see...Hunter thinks he's one of the big kids now. He's a big kid in our house, but he still has a lot to learn. With that said, he doesn't like when I walk him to the bus in the morning. He's already embarrassed by me I guess. As I explained to him, once you can show me that you can get yourself to the bus stop (at the end of the street) by walking on the side walk and looking both ways when you cross the road, you can walk by yourself. When you can stand by the stop sign or in front of and not on the edge of the road, you can walk by yourself. When you can stop throwing rocks and running around in the street, you can walk by yourself. In the meantime, I'll be walking (a distance behind you) to the bus stop. Am I being over-protective? No, he's a kindergartner! Plus, I'm secretly hoping that one of these days, he'll actually turn around and say good-bye to me. OR at least wave. He's breaking my heart and he doesn't even know it!

We are also working on getting off the bus. Well, the bus in general. We've picked up quite a few things from the bus. For example, after his first day riding the bus, he came home and put his hand up in front of my face and asked some bogus question like, "Do you know what this does?" And before I could come up with a bogus answer, he stuffed it in my face. With a little more force it would have seriously hurt. He bust up laughing and told me he learned it on the bus. Apparently someone did it to him and it was "hilarious." Ha. Ha. Ha. He also had a nice talking to, along with another kid, about spitting on the bus. I know this because I started having a mini-panic attack when he didn't get off the bus. Just before I my mind went else-where, the bus driver whipped her window open and let me know he was coming. Thank goodness, but grrr!

I am happy to report that he has made a few friends on the bus, though he can't remember their names. Yeah buddy! But like I said earlier, we're working on getting of the bus too. By that I mean going home after school instead of following the neighbor kids around like a puppy dog. Seriously, just about every day I have to reroute him to our house instead of someone else's.

Then there's the "incident" we had a school. On the third day of school. The third day. I didn't find out until the next afternoon when I emailed his teacher to let her know he was going to be gone on Firday. I was blindsided with her response of, in shortened form, a) call the school and update your contact info because we couldn't get a hold of you yesterday. b) He's a delight to have in class, loves sitting by me, and is very helpful, but c) he poked a kid in the face with scissors and made him bleed. Didn't you get the note I sent home yesterday?  Gah! No! I didn't get a note! It was pinned to his shirt but he "took it off on the bus and made an airplane (probably resembling a paper ball) out of it." He had been sent to the office for the remainder of the day, about 15 minutes, had to stay in for the next morning's recess, and lost his scissors for a week. I think losing his scissor privileges was really hard on him. What do you do when everyone else is using scissors? *Long exhale* "I just have to tear it...."

This little incident has been tearing me up for a good week now. How could my child do something like that? Maybe the better question is why? He claims he just wanted the other kid to know how it felt. I guess he was curious, but I still feel terrible about it. I hope it's just an "adjusting to kindergarten" phase he's going through!

In other news though, he basically asked to go to bed tonight at 6pm because he was so tired. He wanted me to know that after school tomorrow, he just wants to come home and take a nap. He's finally exhausted! This never happens! Ever! I had to carry him to the bus yesterday morning because he was too tired to walk. I would have held him all day if he let me. I NEVER get snuggles like that with my kids anymore! When he got home - he actually walked half way back to the house with me - he asked, "Is it okay that I fell asleep on the bus? I was just so comfortable with my head on my backpack." So it wasn't a big surprise today when he wanted to go to bed.

Overall though, he's definitely enjoying school and is slowly but surely remember people's names. He knows the librarian's name and his music teacher's. And he apologized to the boy he poked in the face and they are friends now. Not how I would go about making friends, but that's just me...