We've Got the Blues

You know how you can remember Kindergarten, but you don't really remember it? I remember my first day because I was switched to a new class at the last minute and it took awhile to find the right place for me to go. I remember not wanting my mom to leave me there. I remember there were only 12 kids in my class (private school) and only 2 of us were girls. I remember one day we had pink cupcakes for the other girl's birthday and then she threw up in the class and it was pink and that was when I made the connection that what goes in must come out. I remember the first sentence I had to read out loud by myself: "Dad, can Al ride the bus?" I remember being bored a lot of the time. I remember being so terribly shy to the point that I would intentionally not finish my work so that I would be made to stay inside by myself while the other kids went to recess; that was when I could breathe. I remember wanting to take a backpack to school except there was no reason to, but I took one anyway filled up with toys.

What I don't remember about Kindergarten was how much coloring goes on! No wonder I had to buy 5 boxes of crayons for Collin's school supply list. That's all they do! He has brought home a stack of papers that he has colored. At this rate I will need to replace all those crayons by Christmas. The problem is that Collin has never been that big on coloring. He will draw pictures using that wonderful imagination of his, but he will hardly ever sit down with a coloring book and fill in the pictures. His pictures always include words too. They don't do much writing in Kindergarten. Not yet anyway.

There is a color chart on the wall and each child has a clothes pin, or something similar, with their name on it clipped on the chart. Everyone starts each day on green, but if you have bad behavior then your pin is moved to different colors and there is some type of consequence for each one. The first step down is a warning, then a time out, then the child is not allowed to play at recess, and eventually they are sent to the office is the offense is bad enough. For the first time on Tuesday, Collin had his pin moved down a color... to blue.

When I picked him up he was playing outside and when he saw me he turned around and ran in the other direction. He finally came back around to me and told me that he had to go on blue but he did not want to talk about it. He had a little snack that another child had shared with him and wanted to eat it on the way home. I told him he could but only if he told me what happened. He reluctantly agreed. He said at first he was talking when he wasn't supposed to and then later he was supposed to be (you guessed it!) coloring, but he was singing instead. I had to try hard not to laugh at that one! I asked if he was finished coloring when he started singing, he said no. He said he just didn't want to color anymore and that was why he was singing. Who can blame him for being sick of coloring? Although that does not excuse the singing. He was really upset about the blue mark. He told me he thought he would stay on green forever. I tried to explain that green is not a guarantee and he would have to work for it every day. I also explained that I will always love him no matter what color he comes home with. He wanted to know specifically if I would still love him if he had to go to the office. I assured him I would, but I wouldn't be very happy if that happened.

This morning when I woke him up I asked him, like I always do, if he had nice dreams. He is so creative and I love hearing his stories. I don't know if he really dreams up the stuff he tells me about or if he's just making it up, but I'm leaning towards the latter. So he tells me he had a bad dream. In his dream Owen wrote the letter A and the letter X and I was very proud of him. But then Collin also wrote an A and an X but I was not proud of him. That just almost broke my heart. I took this opportunity (as a nerd) to use my favorite line from the newest Star Trek movie spoken by Spock's mom: "No matter what you choose to be, you will always have a proud mother."

He was resolved today to do better and stay on green and he achieved his goal! I think this lesson really sunk in, for now anyway. No telling what the future will hold!