What A Difference A Sticker Makes.

Kindergarten is rough. You have to sit in a tiny little chair, color, write, listen, play, and even learn all day long. Kindergarten is not exactly what I remember from my youth. I recall talking to my friends about Cookie Monster accidentally mistaking the letter C for a cookie and gobbling it up that morning on Sesame Street. Bringing home my giant J book at the end of the week to show my parents how I could identify, sound out, and possibly even write the letter of the week. Painting. Playing with the blocks. Singing songs about wheels and buses and all that jazz. Kindergarten is more like 3rd grade nowadays. My mini-me comes home with work I can't imagine she could actually do. Surprise. She does it. She does it with ease. When can you recall having to learn how to write letters, numbers, add, draw, identify : first;last;middle;second;third etc., color-code, identify : left;right, connect-the-dots, read sight words, and much more all in one evening of homework. Most of which in one single assignment? How can her little brain contain that information!? But she is doing so well. No complaints. Academically that is.



Two weeks ago I was embarrassed of my parenting skills. Or.......lack-there-of. This was the first of many times, I assume.



My little Tator never went to pre-school. "She's smart. She doesn't need it." I ate those words so fast, Cookie Monster would be proud. Let me warn all of you "newish" moms out there. If your child has never been in school, please, please, please put them in pre-school. Your welcome. Luckily, I learned that it's not about how smart my child is. It's about the social interaction/awareness. Or......lack-there-of. As many friends as my little one had prior to class, nothing could have prepared her for the excitement of having 29 little lemmings to perform for. I have a star on my hands. Brittney eat your heart out. Little Miss Popular is a little too popular. To spare my child's future embarrassment,(as I am sure she will read this someday, most likely sooner than I had originally planned; see 1st paragraph) I will not go into too much detail about her first few weeks of school. Although I must say I was extremely shocked by seeing a sudden increase in the reds, and yellows on her behavior chart. She was being such an angel at home since school started. More willing to help, so sweet with the Lil, even missing and loving on the mommy and daddy. How could she be acting up at school!? I suppose all her "sour" energy was depleted by 2:50 so by the time that she was home only "sweet" was left. Adjustment is the worst. So many kids to play with, show off for, who wants to sit still and work? But luckily for me she has a great teacher. I would imagine you would have to be crazy to want to teach a bunch of 5 year old's all day long. God bless teachers. But as crazy as she must be, she is very sweet. And understanding. I don't know what I'm doing after all. When I had Paige I didn't see past her turning one. Then two. Then three. Then four. Now, at five....I'm lost. I didn't expect these days to ever come. I sometimes feel like a fish out of water with this whole "parenting" thing. Ooopsie got a little sidetracked ahem....So me and the "teach" came up with an ingenious plan to get my little "red-light/yellow-light" munchkin back on track. God bless stickers. A sticker chart. Who'da thunked it? It has truly been a blessing. She eats now. She gets all green lights. She cleans up her toys. It's ahhh mazing. Sticker charts, where have you been all my life!?



Now I know. Chalk it all up to the experience. Lil -you will be in pre-school. You will use charts and stickers. You will. Thanks Paige. You taught me a valuable lesson. I ♥ you.