(Any (parent of an) Elmo fan will recognize that title.)

Jared turned 5 yesterday!

Something happened in the last week or so, after his early party as he looked forward to his birthday. Finally when I picked him up at school he would run out to me, instead of being sulking in a corner or screaming at someone. Finally he wasn’t saying he hated school every day. (That only lasted about 2 weeks thank goodness – I got the teachers involved as soon as I heard that.)

Teacher Nancy met with Jared for a good hour last week. She told him that pre-k and nursery school are important so he can learn how to make his feelings stronger. Just like he exercises to make his muscles stronger, he has to practice making his feelings strong too so he can deal with other people and problems well. This really resonated with him. They made 2 lists, one of things he can think about when he’s feeling blue and one of things he can do when something he doesn’t like is happening (screaming and moping weren’t on the list).

I like to have him draw a picture of how he’s feeling when he’s mopey or moody and that works pretty well. We have also tried dribbling a basketball and other physically calming actions which have surprisingly been less successful.

The important thing is that he’s coping better, and he’s learning methods to help him when it’s rough.

I remember Kristin Alvarez, a mom at ECPC, telling me that turning 5 is like a magic switch. At the time her oldest of 3 was in kindergarten and we were trying to decide whether to start Ethan in kindergarten at age 4 or 5. 4 was a REALLY hard year for Ethan, and it has been for Jared too. Ethan’s “recovery” toward sanity and out of tantrums was gradual. Jared’s was like a magic switch.

School school school.

Some people think that No Child Left Behind, and the corresponding drop in gifted education, is a strategy to move toward vouchers. Illinois and Michigan eliminated all state funding for gifted programs. All resources are going into that bottom slice so that all children can read. Did we really have an illiteracy problem in this country before NCLB?

I recently made the decision to keep the children at our neighborhood elementary school Laurel (where Lindy went for 3 years!!!) instead of moving them to the Music and Arts Montessori Magnet school, North Shoreview, across town. A big part of that decision was the commute. Walking to school is good for family time, health, getting the boys’ brains ready to learn each day and the environment. NS had a fantastic curriculum with the creative art and commitment to music that Laurel is sorely lacking. But a 15 minute drive (minimum) each direction, when the 3 boys will still be on 3 different schedules next year was too much for mom.

On top of that, we don’t know when we’ll move again. We know we will move sometime in the next 5 years. Glen loves Burlingame, which does have great schools. We didn’t want to make Ethan change schools twice.

Ethan got his report card yesterday. He is performing at or above grade level on everything except penmanship. We’re working on those fine motor skills!

Jared, otoh, has been hating school. Every day he says he doesn’t want to go. He also says he has no friends (except Tait Hollis (Ethan’s school mate) who “cares about his feelings). His pre-k and regular nursery program teachers are taking this seriously with me. Teacher Nancy met with him outside of school on Wednesday to talk about how he’s feeling and why nursery school is important.

Jared gets the “academic” part of the curriculum very quickly. He’s a little obnoxious about it actually. He was the first to memorize his phone # while other children still had to read theirs off their cards. He would put his card in another room and then come and recite his to PROVE that he knew his and isn’t this EASY and so on.

But he is apparently the most sensitive child on the planet. If you so much as bump into him at school on your way past him, you might get screams and wails of – “you did that on purpose! you wanted to hurt me!”

More on this….