So, things are mostly the same. Emily hasn't lost any more teeth, but there are only 8 more days left of kindergarten.
I have to say, I'm going to be glad too -- packing lunches has nearly been the death of me. The school only allows dairy or parve lunches to be packed, so that limits us a bit (she likes turkey, but of course I can't pack meat in her lunch). As soon as she seems to like something and it becomes a no-brainer and I make it a regular item, she suddenly "doesn't like it" or it "smells bad" or something completely bogus, and I have to rethink it. At this point the only thing she seems to eat consistently is macaroni and cheese (in the thermos).
But I think she had a great year overall. She learned a great deal, and she seems so much older than she did at the beginning of the year. She took to learning Hebrew so quickly, and it's impressive to see how much she knows. She still isn't completely reading independently, but she is right on the very edge of doing so -- I'd bet within a week or so she'll be doing it.
I was on the fence about sending her back there, for a few reasons. My biggest beef is that a lot of the kids there are not just well-to-do, but extremely spoiled and with a real sense of entitlement. Now, Emily is talking all the time about being rich and making lots of money and how becoming rich is all she wants. I'm trying not to be a blowhard about this, but I've been taking the position that being rich wouldn't really make a difference -- we already have everything we could possibly need, everything we want, etc. so if we were rich the only thing we'd have is more of the same stuff, which doesn't make sense since we already have everything.
Also I felt a bit like while Mrs. McNally is a good teacher, she is definitely not an ideal fit with Emily's personality. Talking to some of the other parents, it sounds like a number of them have had similar concerns about her; they feel that her expectations were a little unrealistic.
Gretchen did warn me before we started that while Mrs. M. really is good with the kids, I might find her kind of difficult to read and interact with. That seems to be a pretty common experience. I remember at our first conference, the very first thing she said to us was, "Does Emily have rules at home that she has to follow?" I took that to mean that she felt Emily had absolutely no ability whatsoever to comprehend and follow classroom structure, and was definitely taken aback.
Emily has had problems with being "silly" and cutting up in class, talking out of turn a lot, and being just generally a little rambunctious. However, there were some social issues -- Emily's best friend in the class, until recently, was Julia who is also one of the youngest kids in the class (I think there's one younger than Emily and Julia), and who is also a very lively, active, assertive kid. So they were friends and they also clashed a lot, and they seemed to have a great deal of difficulty settling down in class. Emily's best days behavior-wise were when Julia was away for 2 weeks after winter break.
The other reason I was contemplating a change was partly related to that -- the small class/school size is a good thing, on the whole, but the downside is that the social dynamics are a little intense and concentrated. There are 6 girls in the class so if you have a falling out with one friend, your options are pretty limited. So every day at pickup it's like tuning in to a soap opera -- one day Taylor and Julia were friendly and the next day Julia wasn't Taylor's friend but she was Emily's and the day after that someone else had a club and Taylor wanted Emily to be in it but not Julia and the day after that Julia said she was Taylor's friend and not Emily's. It made me want to stab my eyeballs out with a fork. Anyway, although Emily didn't seem actually UNhappy about this, she did seem a bit overly concerned and obsessed with all of that, and I dreaded the thought of the next five years' worth of this. I thought perhaps at the public school, while the social dynamics are the same, there is at least a wider group to pick from, and so it might be a little more diffused.
Obviously, I have completely forgotten everything about elementary school!
It is yet another reason I'm glad Max is a boy -- I don't doubt that boys can give each other a hard time, but I don't really think it involves quite as much nit-picky minutiae about who has what and who wore what and when and so forth -- they beat the crap out of each other and then they're over it and they don't have to talk about it for two hours after school every day. At least that's my understanding.
Class is over so Jon is a teeny tad less stressed, but he is still intent on getting a couple of papers out this summer (to fulfill the tenure requirement) so he will still be putting in a lot of time. It will be worth it, ASSuming he gets tenure, but I will be glad when that's not hanging over us.
Aaannd then there's Max, still nursing about a hundred times a day, still co-sleeping (he starts the night in his crib, but is generally back in with us by about 2 a.m. if not before, and he is not the most considerate bed-mate.
We are going to get our act together and start the Ferber thing fairly soon, but I'm dreading it.
Anyway. I realize this sets a new standard of coma-inducing twaddle, but hey, you clicked the link.
