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September 5, 2008 by m_priest7.
Sophia was finally accepted to a kindergarten about a week ago. We were a little worried as we were very late getting her registered and hoping to have her settled before August to give us a little idea what to be ready for. We were on three waiting lists and we were set up at Dante Aligheri Elementary school nearby. It’s not a block and a half away as Sophia’s mom wanted, Susan, but she’ll just have to walk the extra nine or ten blocks.
Sophia of course has been very apprehensive about going to school. Part of it had to do with the move that took her out of Head Start—because of it she lost a space in head start since it was all filled up in East Boston. However a lot of it also had to do with the stop gap idea we had to get her into summer camp to get her ready for school socially. I was hoping it would be a good place for her to get used to school life in kindergarten, but instead she got ready for junior high and high school. This wasn’t commonplace but she got teased and bullied a few times, and since this wasn’t as structured or competent an environment as head start or kindergarten, I don’t she didn’t get much help from the counselors. I remember when I was a summer counselor at 15, and I know I wasn’t ready to help deal with infighting amongst five and eight year olds. I don’t think much has changed. I think Sophia had no idea how do deal with that and she did act out a lot over the summer. Apparently also her older brother being at her house almost all summer all the time was also a problem. He teased her too. Even though it was just a sibling thing, I know from experience that when you get teased at school and then get the same at home you tend act out all the more and/or withdraw a lot. So Sophia’s been very sad and frustrated with the idea of going to kindergarten, and it was only through trying to talk to her in little bits that we figured out all the past reasons why.
We did a couple of things to try and get her into going. The other day I took her to the playground/play area behind the school itself. A friend suggested I do that to get them used to the school itself. It’s a cute space that looks like a smaller version of the large playground in my neighborhood. Plus it had a small amphitheater and I got to explain what that was, too. She had a fun time with that. Yesterday we took her shopping for her school uniforms (white shirts and navy blue pants and skirts). That sucked trying to get stuff in the madhouse the day BEFORE the older kids started school. Still, she was still worried about going. I told Susan to call the school and see if we could have Sophia tour the classroom and we were able to go there today. It’s smaller than her head start classroom, but basically looks just like it. We met with the two teachers who run the class and will be teaching the 22 students in this year’s class (last year it was 16). They explained to me and Susan the rules in the class, which keeps the other kids from bullying each other. Susan was listening intently, I was watching Sophia play with the dollhouse they had there. They both calmed down a lot after that school visit.
After leaving the school, Sophia still seemed sad; this time it was because she didn’t want to leave the school.
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