Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Miss Independent

Shrike took Peeper to art class this morning, where she made a handprint-on-a-pretty-blue-ball ornament. Sort of.

She put her handprint on it, then messed with it and smeared it all off.

And then she smeared all her paints together and got them all over herself. Or so I am told.

The class is from 10 - 11 am. They were home by 10:45, because Peeper said "I am all done," and Shrike said, "Yep. You sure are."

The day before, at gym class, while everyone else was doing the parachute, Peeper was jumping on the trampoline.

While everyone else was kicking a ball across the gym, Peeper was at the other end of the gym, climbing on the bleachers.

While everyone else was holding one tennis ball and throwing it at a target, Peeper was dumping out the entire fucking bucket of tennis balls.

So, we have to ask ourselves whether she's intentionally ignoring the instructions, or just doing her own thing.

Is she being anti-social or thinking independently?

Is she preparing for a life of crime, or to discover the cure for cancer?

Or maybe she's just being a typical three-year-old, compared to her relatively more compliant two-year-old classmates?

2 comments:

  1. "More compliant 2-year-old classmates"??!

    I gave up taking my 2-year-(and 9 month)old to classes way back before summer, because he just wouldn't do anything in that kind of environment. At gym class, when everyone was on the apparatus, he was spinning circles on the mats in the middle. When they were doing the parachute, he was climbing the ladders and screaming. When they were singing and practicing somersaults, he was throwing tantrums and refusing to go anywhere near the class area. We went to a less prescribed, more relaxed play/gym class, where he spent all the time bouncing on the trampoline, and we can do that at home for free. He won't touch art supplies at crafting sessions, though it's all he wants to do at home. So I gave up!

    He's just not cut out for it, I guess. I'm not too concerned about what it means for the future, we'll figure that out when we get there ;)

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  2. People keep telling us that "three is much worse than two," and maybe she does seem more "willful" these days, and a few months ago, she seems to be more "with the program."

    But perhaps that's not such a bad thing for her, just a pain in the ass for us. I mean isn't a strong will considered a good thing when you're an adult?

    Anyway, yeah, that's how she is. She keeps going over to the trampoline and the step-up-slide-down-to-the-mat thing when we're supposed to be doing other things.

    We're not actually worried about the long term implications, of course, but in the moment it's a bit embarrassing to have the kid who's always over there, doing her thing.

    I have noticed, though, that when she's doing something different or just wanting to cuddle, if the teacher engages her directly and asks her to do something, or go somewhere with her, she's all about it.

    So, we're hoping that she'll do okay if we decide to go with the non-mommy-and-me class after the holidays.

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What say you?