Evie's first week back to school was a bit rough. She was upset because she thought her teacher had given her classroom job away, and she was so distraught by it that she cried about it a couple of times Monday evening. I asked her if she told her teacher how she felt and she said she was worried she would get in trouble for talking. I told her that I understood that she always wants to follow the rules, but that it's good to let people know when thing are upsetting you, if you can find the right time to mention it, and that calmly expressing your feelings is never something you should get in trouble for. I encouraged her to write a letter to her teacher, but she wanted me to handle it... So I reluctantly wrote an email to let her teacher know she was feeling like she didn't have a role in the classroom community anymore, but that the main concern I had was in making sure that Evie will start standing up for herself and expressing herself when she is bothered. Her teacher is amazing and set up a post-it note system for Evie to write down if she is upset so that the teacher can know she needs to check in with her. This way Evie feels like she is welcome to express herself, but not disrupt class.
Because her teacher is being so wonderful, I did something I said last year I was not going to do again - I agreed to be the room sponsor. Now if you don't know, a room sponsor is a parent/guardian of a student in the class, whose responsibilities include making sure the teacher gets any materials they might need as a special request, receive a gift for their birthday, end of year, and holiday times. I have done this for Evie's 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade teachers because no one else ever signs up. And so, last year when no one volunteered and the needs of the classroom all fell to me because no parents ever responded, I swore I was not going to do it again this year. But Evie has such a great teacher and no one else had volunteered so I felt like I really had to.... Evie was there when I asked her teacher if she still needed a sponsor and I told her I would do it since no one else had stepped up. As we walked away, I said to Evie, "Now I told myself I wasn't going to do that this year.... Why did I just do that?" She said, "Because you're kind." So at least I scored some points with my kid.
In addition to going back to school, Evie's ballet classes also started this week and I am so glad she was well in time to attend the first sessions. Since she is now in upper level 2, she attends an extra hour of rehearsal just for upper level 2 girls on Mondays. There are only 5 girls enrolled in her level, so she gets lots of extra attention for that one hour. On Tuesdays, she has class with the lower level 2s as well, a total of 14 girls.
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