-2

my girl was a mess today when she arrived home from school. like total meltdown. i tried to ask about her day...the usual questions. "who was line leader? did they do a good job? what did you have for a snack? what letter did you talk about? who did you play with on the playground?"

she wouldn't tell me anything. clay told me lu was the line leader. usually she'd be VERY excited about this. but nope, just melting. all she would say was that she was tired, but she didn't want to nap (shocking).

we put the boys down for a nap & decided to snuggle on the chair with some wow wow wubsy. clearly she was feeling very insecure about something. with all that we have going on i thought maybe it was just upsetting that she came home to find her favorite room in the house (the craft room) completely dismanted.

after an hour of snuggling...
lu: mom. do you want to know what happened at school today?
mom: of course, yes! i do!
lu: i got something wrong.
mom: what do you mean? (genuinely confused...we've never had this conversation before)
lu: on a worksheet. i got something wrong.

so i went digging through the 15 papers she brings home daily. i look at them but have never, not ever, seen anything other than right answers & stars. i assumed (incorrectly, apparently) that they sort of the did the worksheets together...otherwise how could EVERY worksheet ALWAYS have ALL the right answers??!?!?

ah. but not today. today i found a sheet with a -2 on the bottom. they are learning the difference between long & short vowel sounds & she circled the bug instead of tube for the long u sound. she told me she thought the tube was a cap, so the answer must have been bug. but she was wrong & so ms. s put a -2 on her page.

oh my.

i'm still processing. i'm alarmed that:
a-she's gotten everything right this year up until today
b-that prek 4s get points (for lack of a better term) on stuff i was doing in 1st & 2nd grade
c-it really had a negative effect on her & shook her up

i'm grateful that:
a-she's a smarty pants, works hard & cares
b-that she is learning a ton & has built a lot of confidence
c-she had a learning moment (for lack of a better word) in the 'safe zone' of pre k when she comes home at noon.

and i could write more, but like i said, i'm still processing. and it's 10:40 and i need to go to bed.