feet to yourself

Since C will not voluntarily tell us anything about his life, we insist that he tell us his favorite and least favorite things that happen in preschool each day. His favorite thing (other than snack) is almost invariably "drawing pollution pictures," which he does during free-play time in the morning in order to avoid playing with other children. (He generally refuses to color the photocopied pictures of apples or leaf-rakers the teacher sets out, and either flips them over or integrates his motorcycles into the existing picture, but we think that's a good thing.)

Once, his least favorite thing was not having time to finish snack (which we've observed) so we talked to the teacher and now send him in with Tupperware to carry extra snack home. He's never actually done this, and we're unclear as to whether that's because he's been finishing his snack on time or if his teacher is discouraging it, but we haven't heard any more complaints so we're letting it go.

Yesterday, his least favorite thing was when "somebody kicked me, and I kicked him back." He didn't know who, or why it happened, or any useful details like that; and later the story changed to C kicking first (which honestly, unfortunately, struck us as a more likely scenario). I asked the assistant teacher about it when I dropped him off today, and she said C kicked Colton during circle time, the teacher told him to keep his feet to himself, and that was pretty much it. (Whether Colton got any kicks in wasn't said.)

She also said that C had been doing pretty well and told her a lot about pollution, and only occasionally would run over and use his scissors to cut other kids' papers. I think, "oh dear," but then realize- it's not my problem! I don't have to be there! They're handling it! Obviously if it became a big problem we'd have to intervene, but no one even mentioned it to us until I asked, so apparently it's not a real issue yet. Ah, the freedom of hiring someone else to protect other kids from C....

Sarah