Week 6 K-12: Finally, some good news!

Rosie on the carousel
Originally uploaded by nylonthread

I just received a phone call from the Principal of Rosie's Elementary School. Now, the instinctual reflex of getting a principal-call is to flinch, right? You all flinched, didn't you? C'mon, admit it.

He expected the cringe, so started off the call with, "This is Mr. M., principal at Rosie's school, and don't worry, this is a call with a good message." Thank goodness! I have been wanting to hear something warm 'n' fuzzy so badly I wrote an email to her teacher earlier this week that pleaded for it; here's an excerpt:

"...Can you let me know if there are any positives to Rosie's kindergarten experience as yet? All I have heard so far is negatives (slow, unfocused, distracted, not-listening, twiddling-with-accessories) and that is getting us all pretty down. What is she doing well? How is she excelling during her day? I do need something to help pump her up, or she's just going to stop wanting to go to school altogether."

The very good news is not only that Miss M. is back from the hospital full time, but she let Mr. M. know (his quote was that she "fairly danced into his office to say") this afternoon that Rosie has really turned a corner this week and has been getting all of her work done during the school day! She's behaving well and is no longer under a threat to be on a "behavior contract" (yes, that was a threat at the beginning of this week). She asked that the principal call us—monkeyrotica got a call, too—directly and give us her good feedback.

We'll be following up on his suggestion that we give her a treat this weekend and let her know how proud we are, especially since she has shown in class that she's terribly proud of herself!

(green is my happy color)

I know, I know, this is such a small step, but Kindergarten has turned out to be uncharted territory for the Strings. We thought she was doing great—better than all the others in her Pre-K class, really—and were floored when Rosie didn't adapt well to public school. Just when I'm starting to feel like an old hand at this parenting stuff, I get whacked down by unforeseen events.

I know we're not out of the woods (you like all the hackneyed clichés I'm throwing in here? it's been a long week), and it's possible that we may see some relapses. At the moment, I'm sighing a big relieved breath and looking forward to a calm 3-day weekend that doesn't involve thrusting Crayolas into our daughter's face.