Zander Update

I have not been great at updating my blog lately, but wanted to post an update on how Zander is doing in school - otherwise I know I'll forget when I think about the "good ol' days".

The first week of kindergarten went really well. Mana drops Zander off and the first week of school, the kids congregated on the front lawn with the teacher. Then, the teacher would lead the class into the school. After that first week, it was a normal routine. So for Zander, that means Mana dropping him off. Zander insisted that he come into the school and bring him to the locker area. Sure, no big deal. The kid needed a little help finding the classroom. Well, after a few times of this, Zander started crying when Mana tried to leave. It has gotten progressively worse. I did a few drop-offs lately so I could experience first-hand what Mana was dealing with. It's at the point where he has to be brought to the class and we have to literally pry him off our leg and then run like heck out of the school and hope he doesn't chase us down the hall.... but he does. So, we have to walk him back until a teacher can take him and hold him back from running after us.

I feel horrible - and confused at the same time. How can a kid hate school this early on. And especially when he's doing so well. At conferences, his teacher said that he is one of the smartest kids in class. He's one of only 3 kids that can recognize all their upper and lowercase letters. That wasn't a surprise to me. Honestly, I thought ALL kindergartners knew this - guess not. He's also one of only 2 kids that can count past 50. Again not surprised. I'm often entertained with his counting into the late hundreds on our morning drives to Lizzy's. The teacher also said he's very participatory. He's always raising his hand to answers questions and he's very helpful. He doesn't act up at all. They have a green/yellow/red stoplight program each day. At the beginning, you start out at green and if you do anything bad (not follow rules, not kind to friends, etc), you move to yellow. Break the law again and you're red. He has been green every day, so he's a good kid. Just hates the separation thing! I think a small part is that he knows that Mana and Mason head out to run errands and he thinks he's missing out of the "fun".

I've been working with the teacher on action plans to turn this situation around. She's been great. Our next plan of attack is to involve the school psychologist - and use a sticker chart at school for his successful drop-offs. Zander met her today and she will be meeting Zander at his locker for a few days. And then a few times after that, she will meet Zander at the school entrance. Hopefully, we can "wean" him from needing the support to get into school. I know he can do it. He's a smart kid. He just needs to gain some independence.