The Garden School Tattler

It was a beautiful day, and we spent most of it outside. The kids were remarkably good. We had the last of the caramel and five pounds of chocolate fudge. Every child but one got treats.

We began the morning with a very communal play period. I’ve never seen the children play as well. There were ten boys playing at building a fort for the Rescue Heroes. One child went over and kicked down the building.

Some of the little guys, like Briana who just loves puzzles, spent her time trying out one puzzle after another. One child went over and took one piece, then another until the Briana was in tears.

We went to circle time to explain the morning. While every child sat and listened, one child sat at the piano with his back to me.

We had French toast, raisins and milk on the patio. Every child came for French toast over and over. We serve it cubed and in small Dixie cups. Every child played and ate happily except for one who climbed on the play house. He spent the next half hour sitting in time out. We are not allowed to climb on the play house.

We went in the building about 9:30 for circle time. We prayed together, except for the one who kept laying down and bothering the child next to him. Then we did yoga. We stretched, we bent, we balanced, we did some hard things! We stood on one foot and grabbed our toes with one hand and extended the other. Then we pulled our grabbed toe foot out straight and stood like ballerinas except for the child who pushed his friends down while they tried to balance. He can’t balance – doesn’t have a clue after a year of doing yoga how to do it nor does he care.

Three children couldn’t make it through circle time. He was one. We read “How to Make and Apple Pie.” The children all laughed and enjoyed Miss Judy’s rendition of a proper English Cow. He meandered around not really playing with anything, and then looking at the group he started making so much noise, he had to sit down and put his head down.

We had a fine arts project. We are trying to understand what a mosaic is. We had some tag board with an apple drawn on it. The children were supposed to glue little red squares on the apple and green squares on the back ground. Every child but one did it. He glued them all together into a mess. He turned over the glue pot and blamed it on another child.

Then we went outside again. I brought the left over caramel. Needless to say, he didn’t get any and he told me he hated me. He made four children cry by kicking, hitting, throwing rocks, and spitting, and three kids went after him and he ended up in tears. His response was to scream at them and threaten to do more damage.

We had a lovely lunch on the patio – fish sticks, rice, corn, bread, applesauce, bananas, cottage cheese and milk – gotta use the cottage cheese. The kids ate everything on the table.

We brought five pounds of fudge the kids polished off in about five minutes. Needless to say….

My impression of the day was how sad and lonely the poor little boy who on a bad day, simply can’t love anyone but himself. He can’t say no to himself. He can’t let someone have something first. He can’t be kind to another child. How miserable it is to be so lonely, nobody wants to play with you. They can’t at the risk of being kicked.

If I had my wish I would wish the child understood how much he is loved and how much we all want him to turn it around and become the upstanding and righteous man his father is. How much we want him to love his friends and be able to play well and learn. Perhaps one day he will come to see that he is losing everything for what? A chip on his shoulder and the idea that nobody matters much but him.