My Tru-Tru

This post is mostly to document some of the feelings that Truett is experiencing right now. Pre-K is going through a lot of transitions, doing "harder" learning work, and getting the kids ready for kinder. This transition is tough for Truett, because a lot of the memorizing does not come naturally to him - it has also been a good reminder for me that I need to work with him (can't be a lazy mom), and help him learn/memorize his new material from school. He is also very sensitive and jsut going through emotional growing pains so there is the added factor of that. This is also making me find ways to help him help himself cope, and hopefully get to a point where this transition isn't very rough. He's an awesome dude and all the text below was from an email I sent another mom. Long version: So after we talked at karate I talked to Truett that evening at home. I asked him, “are you really sad about karate and swimming or is there something else going on at school that is different?” I am sure there is always a little anxiety/nerves before his karate or swimming class but nothing to the point of how he had been behaving…I think that was just a result of bottling up emotions/anxiety all day at school over the past few weeks (tonight will be the truth – he has swimming). Anyway, He opened up and told me school was “boring” (code word in his language for something hard or something he doesn’t want to do), because he said all they do is “count to 50” and “count by 5’s” –later I found out they were having the kids do these skills in front of the class and I think Truett was embarrassed he couldn’t do them all. L (I’m still not clear if kids were making fun of or just making comments or if he is just beating himself.) Then he also told me they “talk about kindergarten all the time” and I asked him if that makes him nervous/anxious…to which he said yes. I think the talking about kindergarten + the skills that he hadn’t mastered and had to do in front of the class really shook him up and probably caused him to be mentally distracted at KrK (and so not paying attention but sitting there quietly means a lot of that went unnoticed until it became so bad L) – and poor guy was bottling in all that anxiety. I talked to Ms. Kim and Ms. Linda Friday morning and they both told me they had noticed a change (basically a regression) in Truett over the past few weeks too which nearly broke my heart! I am SO thankful you and I had that conversation at karate or I may have never gotten to the bottom of it. I talked to friend who is a previous Pre-k, kinder, & second grade teacher and now an assistant principal. She had some great advice for me and the teachers, which I shared with them Friday afternoon (I can tell you more just didn’t want this to be a larger novel but let me know if you want more on that). It sounds like all 3 teachers are definitely on board which is always great…I know they are doing the best they can and this was truly an experience of “being my child’s advocate” so dang early on in his education. Ms. Michele told me yesterday that the 3 teachers talked about it and they are already making some changes that will hopefully help. I think all these kids just process things so differently so what affects one of course might not affect the other. I also took Truett to Scanlan Oaks on Friday to tour the school and to see kinder, so he can visualize it when they talk about it at school instead of having so much anxiety about this unknown-mystical-place called kindergarten. I am SO glad him and I did that…that for sure helped almost immediately. So, in a nutshell I think tonight at swim and Thursday at karate will really be a test to see if some of our new methods are helping him cope with the changes and still building his confidence for and at school. I just hate that he is so young and had to experience fear/shame/anxiety/embarrassment/etc L – there is such a short window of time when they actually want to and like to learn and I really don’t want this experience to block that window for him.