Thursday, October 11, 2007

Yikes. Yesterday Emmylou was "that kid" in music class. After walking up to two different little girls in the class within 15 minutes and slapping them each on the head*, I decided to take her home.

It's kind of exasperating because out of all of the kids in the class, she is the only one who doesn't sit in my lap the majority of the time. Instead, she roams around the room or tries to open the tub of instruments before it's time, or play Miss Carey's guitar, or take her necklace, etc., etc. And Miss Carey, who's very much into Montessori teachings and letting the kids "learn in different ways" thinks it's fine for her to be roaming around, so I always feel awkward redirecting her or even trying to pull her back into my lap (which always elicits a shriek and lasts about 10 seconds). So usually I just feel like a complete idiot, stressed out, watching Emmylou like a hawk, singing songs (complete with the hand motions) all by myself without a partner.

Anyway, yesterday I was getting over the stomach flu and just couldn't make it through the entire hour of class after her antics early on. After nearly crying on Gary's shoulder when we got home, I decided to get a grip and realized that although I need to be firm with her (of course, she CANNOT hit), I need to not get so upset and try to have a sense of humor about things. Emmylou is obviously a "spirited" child (is that the nice way to say it?) and although I want her to behave, I really don't want to break her spirit.

She reminded me of this later that afternoon when she pulled my "Free To Be, You and Me" book off my bookshelf.



Ah... weren't those the days?!




*Is it maybe not so bad if she happened to pick the two most annoying kids in the class (excluding herself)? Maybe it means she's a good judge of character? (Just trying to keep things positive here.)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's all right to cry...crying gets the sad out of you...la la la...
Free to be You and Me is the best! Ok, I have to go find my friend Earl and make some ice cream out of snow now.

Bethany said...

Spirit is good and those other kids probably deserved it (I kid -- kind of). Now, we'll see if I change my mind in a year.

Anonymous said...

Nothing tastes better than humble pie!! It always seems that as soon as I am SOOO proud of what good behavior one kiddo is using the other three are embarassing me totally. Good luck with disciplining without laughing at this age.(especially when they start giving you the evil eye)

Bethany said...

Apparently this is "kids behaving badly week."

Yesterday V had her first temper tantrum...and she's not even four months old (I'm not bragging here). She got upset with me for trying to make her go to sleep and she proceeded to claw and slap at my face. Even though she's a baby, it hurt.