This is not going well, not well at all. The twins still scream every time I drop them off at school and Faith doesn't like Sonshine either. Sonshine puts all the kids from Kindergarten through grade 5 together, and Faith says the bigger kids are mean to her.
That's an easy fix. Once school starts, Faith can stay for the Danville community after school program. No biggie. I'll talk to her about it and see if she'd rather stay with her first grade friends from school after school lets out. It's cheaper than Sonshine as well. Double bonus.
Twins: not so easy a fix. I need to figure out why they don't like pre-school. They just don't, and maybe we're still just in the adjustment period. Who knows, but there have been a few little things that have bothered me, just a little and I've brushed them aside.
The twins teacher sent a note home after the first day of school praising Eva and Cawood. Wonderful, right? Yes and no. It was quite kind of her to send the note, but I told DJ immediately that this woman's writing skills and grammar are atrocious. Horrible, really. I brushed it aside, thinking that she's teaching preschool - surely she can teach them to write their letters and help them build with blocks.
The cars. . . the way in which she told me I needed to build two cardboard cars did not demonstrate the best people skills, but again, I brushed it away. It was directed to me, not the kids.
This morning Eva woke and told me she wanted a peanut butter sandwich for breakfast. I did stop long enough to look at the school lunch menu and saw peanut butter sandwiches listed as an occasional meal. That confirmed this is not a peanut-free school. Cawood spoke up, also requesting a sandwich. I made two and brought them to pre-school.
The twins walked in their classroom where all the other kids were muching on cereal and this teacher was very unhappy that I brought the kids breakfast. She says it's Indiana law; I am not legally allowed to provide food for my children without a doctor's note saying it's acceptable. I explained to her that I didn't know; nobody had told me.
I said, "OK Twins! Cereal for breakfast. I'll save the sandwiches for your dinner."
The twins both started crying. Teacher cornered me in the hallway and said, "I'm not trying to make your life more difficult or anything, but it's not fair for your kids have something different for breakfast. How do you think the other kids will feel about that?"
I honestly never thought about it, nor do I care. I don't treat my own three with complete and certain equality. That's life. Sometimes Eva gets an extra story at bedtime. Sometimes Cawood gets an extra half-hour snuggle on the couch. Life is not about everyone having the same rice krispies for breakfast today and corn pops tomorrow. Not at all.
Here's how I'll handle it: if the twins want a homemade breakfast, I'll let them eat it at home. Because I've sent Faith to school with breakfast and lunch so many times before, it never even crossed my mind that I would not be allowed to do the same for the twins. They can eat breakfast at home. That's not a big deal, right?
Lunch, they can eat what the school provides. However, just to save ourselves all the headache in the future, I did call the kids pediatrician and request doctor's notes saying they have no food allergies and are permitted to eat whatever food I may provide for them from home. If something comes up down the road, I want to have the option of sending lunch with my kids.
But one more thing. . . . I had mentioned to one of my better clients a month or so ago that we would be putting the twins in pre-school. This client runs her own in-home daycare, and she invited the twins to attend. I declined, explaining that DJ had found this school and we were going to give it a solid try.
Client was very, very sweet. She smiled kindly and said, "I used to work at Sonshine. If that doesn't work out for you, please remember your twins are welcome with me."
It makes me wonder.
*****
Edited to add: Kristin Marsh called me shortly after this post published. She was fired up, and 100% on my team, or more accurately a member of the team "Life is not Fair."
Laughing, she commented, "We're the extremists now. We need to form a colony."
That would be awesome.
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