Open House

Last week there was an Open House for Naomi's preschool. I think it was to give parents an opportunity to meet the other kids and parents in the class, but if I'm being honest, I only went to hear the teachers talk about how wonderful Naomi is. Apparently I wasn't the only one, though, because it took me a while to corner any of the teachers. But when I finally did, she told me a very cute story. One day in class, all the kids were sitting in a circle. The teachers brought out a round tin with a lid. All the kids took turns trying to open the container. None of the kids were having any luck. Naomi would have been the last kid to get a turn, but on the turn before her, the little boy managed to get it open. The teacher pointed out that at this age it's hard for kids to think outside themselves, but instead of getting upset about being the only one not to get a turn, Naomi got very excited and was genuinely happy for the boy. I can totally see it in my mind. I can picture her saying, "you did it! Good job!" She is a very encouraging girl. She tells Emma "good job!" all the time, and even says it to Kurt and I sometimes.

I also asked the teacher if Naomi ever wrote her name. I've noticed that on the papers she sends home, it has her name written on it. The handwriting seems too good for a kid but too sloppy for a teacher. Since I've never taught Naomi how to write her name (although Nana did work with her on the letter "N"), I hypothesized that they were just guiding her hand to write her name, but I didn't want to say that just in case the teacher just had really bad handwriting.  As it turned out, the teacher had a mysterious story about that. For the most part, my hypothesis was right. The teachers would hold Naomi's hand and help her write her name. However, one day the teacher (Barb) told Naomi she needed her name on a paper, but before they could write it, Barb had to go help someone else really quick. When she came back, Naomi's name was on the paper. Barb asked the other teachers and aides if they had written it, but they all said they hadn't. And it looked like a kid wrote it. Hmmm... When we got home, I asked Naomi to write her name. Well, she just scribbled on a piece of paper. Maybe she's holding out on us...