Kindness in Youngsters

My girl. My sweet sweet girl.

She wrote a note tonight to a new boy in her class. He actually had to move back from 2nd grade to 1st because he has some learning problems. So, he sits next to Madelyn and apparantly talks during class a lot. This is hard for her to understand because he was in 1st grade before so he should know the rules of first grade. She actually said that. She's my rules girl.

She wrote him a note tonight apologizing to him for ignoring him when he talks to her during class. She said she knows she's not being mean, but it "feels mean."

Okay, this is the part where as a mom I want to grab her and squeeze her until the end of my days ... (a moment, to give myself time to imagine that I could actually do that) ... but I can't. Instead she and I have a nice little chat about how yes, ignoring someone is rude usually, but we can't have discussions with people while our teacher is talking either. I recommended that she do a quiet "sshhh" to him as a reminder to him that they aren't supposed to talk.

Well, her plan is to give him the note tomorrow, sit next to him at lunch, and during lunch tell him that she needs to talk to him during recess.

Her note says, "To ______, Sorry I have it been listening to you. From Madelyn." It's written on a little (I mean little) post it note in the shape of an M. She even folded it up, but then unfolded it so it could stick in her folder.

A heart of gold I tell ya. I just love her so much it hurts.

Meanwhile, I keep getting notes from the teachers about homework issues Madelyn has that are honestly, completely my fault. UGH. When do study halls start because Madelyn will be so much better off when she is able to her homework without me sticking my nose in it.

To encourage her to do her makeup work from being sick I sat down with her and did the same work on a sheet of paper myself. Well, I paid no attention to directions and as a result she had a few things to do over. I just told her how I thought it was supposed to be done, and of course it was all wrong.

Today I get an e-mail that she didn't do the work she was supposed to do over break. I throw papers away. I had no clue there was homework to be done over break.

I didn't send the snowman in after break. I thought it was just something for them to do over break. Yet another e-mail.

And, we have no idea where her spelling sheet went Monday. Madelyn said she saw it in her cubby at school. I honestly never saw it, but who knows I probably threw it away before my eyes caught a glimpse. I actually did ask Madelyn about it and could have sworn she said she did it at school. She later said that she said she needed to do it. Either way, it's gone, I got an e-mail, we worked it out.

Ugh. I am struggling in the homework department. Thankfully Madelyn does well enough in school that the teachers seem to realize it's unusual. I just pray it's the same for Elijah when it's his turn. Oy.