Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Not ready to go

Poor Mallory. She has had a rough go of things lately. Yesterday afternoon was her end-of-year family picnic at school. I was talking to her teacher and she told me that she had a rough time with her yesterday morning.
She went on to say she has noticed a change in Mallory over the past few weeks - Mallory has been disconnected in general, and hasn't been acting like herself.
I totally know where this is coming from. Mallory does not want to be done kindergarten. A few weeks ago I was joking with her about being in Grade 1 next year and she started to cry and came right out and said it - "I don't want to be done kindergarten!!"
She loves her teacher, her classmates, her classroom, her cubby, the bulletin board in the hall where her work is displayed, the option to walk with a friend down the hall to take the attendance to the office, the playground that is sequestered from the other kids, the theme days, the flip charts and surveys, the science table, the reading nook... she loves it all. She has had two wonderful years of it and she does not want to let it go.
She is a kid who never wants to do anything new, try a new food, go someplace different - and then we force her to do it and in the end, she loves it. I think she will be that way with Grade 1. I think she will love it just as much as she loves kindergarten. She just has to give it a chance.
I picture what back-to-school day will look like in September though, and unfortunately, it looks a lot like last year in my mind: Mallory crying and clinging onto my leg, the principal coming along and scooping her up and carrying her through the doors. I hope not to see a repeat of that, but I just don't know. And I don't think that Mallory trusts that good things lie ahead.

Wish us luck - we will be having a lot of pep talks this summer.
(In other news, we finally have pool weather - yay!)

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