“That guy’s DEAD!” Laylee blurted as Beethoven’s 5th symphony came on our car stereo.
“Who?” I asked.
“The guy who made that song. My music teacher said he’s dead and this song has themes.”
She proceeded to tell me that she “loves that guy.” She loves him because his music is beautiful. She loves him because he wrote a song for a woman he loved but never married. She loves him because he must’ve started composing music when he was really young to get all those songs written before he was dead. She loves him because he has hearing loss just like her.
There’s something amazing about sending her off each day and then having her come home with her little brain overflowing with knowledge. I have never seen a kid who loves school the way Laylee loves it. She loves everything about it. She can’t get enough.
It’s a little disconcerting at times to know she’s being taught things by people who aren’t me but it’s also exciting because she comes home and shares what she learns.
I decided today that helping out in the classroom is one of the top 8 best things of ever. I got to see what they do all day, things that Laylee explaaaained… sort of… in a language resembling English. Now it all makes sense. And I got to spy on Laylee. I’ll tell you what she does all day. She stares at Ms. Sweetsie with a look of absolute adoration and intense concentration and tries to follow her instructions with exactness. She bubbles over with joy. She is loved.
And she’s not the only one who does those things. Ms. Sweetsie has the entire class eating out of her hands. I have never seen such a well-behaved group of 5-year-olds in my life. And they’re not scared of her. They just want to please her SO MUCH. I’m sort of hoping that when she retires she’ll set up a Super-Nanny-style empire of parenting improvement courses. She could come live in our computer room and I would be her padowan.
I’m pleased to say though that as much as Laylee lerves Mrs. S, she’s even crazier about me. She bounced out of the classroom today holding my hand and squeezing it. “I’m so lucky to have you for my mom. You’re the best mom in the world. I’m so lucky that my mom comes to school and I get to have you all day at home and all day at school. This is the BEST!” When Dan asked who her special visitor was in class today, referring to the firemen who came to teach a safety lesson, she said, “MOM! She’s a room mom and it’s awesome and she got to spend the WHOLE DAY WITH ME!”
My heart could detonate.
In the classroom I observed that the other kids are not a group of miscreant crack heads, which is a great comfort unto me. For the first time in Laylee’s life she’s making friends independently of me. No longer do I drive her somewhere, plop her diaper bum down in front of another drooling toddler and say, “Behold. Your new friend.”
When she came home a couple of weeks into the school year twittering on about her new friends, I was skeptically pleased for her. “Hmmm…. Who is this Janie character? Really? Does she have any egregious offenses on her rap sheet?
Aw, I’m glad she’s having such a great time in school! She’s such a cutie!
I heart Laylee. And it’s so cool that you’ve already got her Twittering. What’s next? Daring Young Kid blog? Please?
My daughter just started preschool and I wish I could spy on her (ahem–I mean volunteer in class!) but I have two younger kids at home and I don’t think I’d be much help at school if I had them along with me.
I totally know what you mean about the worry that comes along with her making friends independent from you. My daughter keeps talking about a certain boy and how much she likes him. My friend, who is a teacher’s aide in the room across the hall, informs me that Certain Boy is kind of a little stinker who never wants to sit still or listen to the teachers. Eeek! My daughter is 4 and already choosing to hang out with the delinquents! It’s enough to make an overprotective parent go nuts.
Love, love your explanation of Ms. Sweetsie. Your daughter and my son are very similar because he also LOVES school! (His older sister is always telling him that that will change….I hope it doesn’t!) And he also LOVED to please Ms. S last year too! Will I be busted if a little mouse tells Ms. S about the awesome explanation of her on your blog? 🙂
Ms. Sweetsie, must know!
As a mom in that class in the past, I also loved to see the kiddos in this super scene of love and order! AND I must admit, I felt much like Laylee, looking at her teacher with admiration. Even as a parent, I was compelled to stand for pledge, do “brain dances,” laugh at her jokes, stand in lines, and smile endlessly . . . because Ms. S. just knows how to work the crowd!
I’ve already put dibs on a seat in that class for 2010-2011!
I already passed on one of Kathryn’s blogs about Ms Sweetsie so I’m sure another one wouldn’t hurt!
I don’t get to go into the class until next week and I am so excited to ‘be a fly on the wall’ in my kiddos class.
I have never seen a child who loves school so much too… Hope she’ll remember all of these to treasure later in life.
Love the “Behold. Your new friend” thing. Right now, I am in a stage of going to soft toy shops and ‘buying’ best friends for my 5 month old. That’s all he would look at now!!!
Isn’t it AMAZING how much they can absorb? My daugher came home last year from Pre-K talking to me about Van Gogh and Monet’s Bridge and other paintings and artists I had never heard of. Since when did I have to Google something my daughter was telling me about….apparently she has already surpassed my intelligence. I am however the proudest when her teacher tells me last week and Kindergarten parent-teacher conference that my angel is her helper. The one that helps the other kids when they can’t read a word. What!? Yeah…that one belongs to me. :o)
awww…you’re such a good mom!! have fun with it, she won’t always think your so great, unfortunately (or so i hear, my daughter is going to be 12 and she still loves me???).
I love Laylee’s discussion about Beethoven… Totally adorable and so insightful! Isn’t it crazy that these little peppers just run out into the world and survive without us holding their hands all day? Sigh…
Guess what, Kathryn? You can keep that feeling for years to come! The Girl, when we went on a retreat this weekend, was totally bummed when she thought we were in different cabins. She told the leaders that some mistake was made because she WANTED me in her cabin and could they please fix it? The other adults were amazed that she was saying all this about her mom (!) and they wanted to know how I did it. I don’t know how, but my heart about detonated as well… (Oh, and the register person made a mistake; we were in the same cabin and there was much rejoicing by The Girl – well until I had to get parental with all the girls about lights out. Then she wished I was in the other cabin.)
My oldest starts school next year and I have so many confused feelings. I’m mostly really scared, and it’s still an entire year away! This post helps put me at ease, a little. I hope mine love school, too. And has a as great a teacher!
Cute picture of the sweetest kindergartner I know! I love that she loves Beethoven! I love classical music and silence, myself. Easier to think! And feel. I love that she loves her teacher and Mom (and Dad and brother and friends), and that she’s so articulate, and that she loves to learn and has such a great sponge of a mind ! Keep up the filling it with the best! Your doing great! Love ya, Pam
First of all, since I’m relatively new to your blog, I’m just getting to know Laylee, and she is ADORABLE!
Secondly, you made me so excited because I’m volunteering in my son’s kindergarten class tomorrow for the first time. He’s already thrilled that I get to “come see how smart we all are.”
You and Laylee always make me smile. this post was was a strecher (smile went from ear to ear). I love you guys.
Laylee is such a cutie and that’s SO great that she loves Beethoven. The desire to spy on our children never ends — I’m far away from my son in college, but I get to spy on him on Facebook! It’s not quite as good as being in the same classroom, but insighful in its own way.
I know exactly what you mean! I volunteered today at M’s class and felt the same way. Although she was “possessive” of me, she managed to “share me.” I thought she might of had a freakout but she maintained cool, thank goodness.
how interesting it is to not only hear about what kids learn, but what an interesting perspective they have on it. i love beethoven too. 🙂
Given the ‘theme’ of this trail…about young kids going off to school…I thought you and your readers may be interested in a new blog we have built (sponsored by McCain Foods) that focuses on school food. The site also features a questionnaire that can be completed by parents.
Obesity is endemic in the USA and yet, often, school food is part of the problem. The blog is only going to be up for a short while and it would be great if Daring Young Mom bloggers could have a look and add some comments.
The site is managed by me, Jeff Peel, and I’m an independent market researcher.
Please have a look. We’re very keen to hear your comments. I’ll read every one personally.
Jeff Peel
Quadriga Consulting Ltd
for http://mccainfoodsbetterforyou.com/
It’s good that she loves school. How awesome that she loves Beethoven.
What a wonderful post. Of all the things she loves, she loves you the most.
You have one awesome sentence here. “No longer do I drive her somewhere, plop her diaper bum down in front of another drooling toddler and say, “Behold. Your new friend.””
Yep. It has made me laugh hysterically. I went into the kitchen and read this sentence to my husband, who was making a sandwich. He laughed heartily too.
Cheers. You get points for this one sentence. I’m going to go blog about it now.
How many points? I’m keeping track, you know.
Fifteen. And these points are orange, so they’re really special. 😀
Holy Moley! That is the CUTEST niece I have! I need to see you guys, honestly! It’s been too long!
It’s so WEIRD when your kids starts making friends with kids that you haven’t checked out throughly first – although my kids have very, very nice friends, I still feel like I should have veto power.
And wistfully – I wish I was enthusiastic about their school, too.
Props to the music teacher too. When my daughter was in kindergarden there she came home talking about Tchaikovsky. The teacher taught them to pronounce it like a cough! We went to the Nutcracker that year because the music teacher completely went over it with her and DD loved it!
We are so blessed that our motherhood job is filled with these moments/days/months/lifetimes of tender loving. It makes all the work we do worthwhile.
Laylee is a treasure and I’m so glad that she has a wonderful teacher. That will make all the difference in how she feels about school and learning and life in general.
So glad she is embracing classical music and learning to identify with great people (even if some of them are dead.)
This is off-topic, but I’ve been curious for some time – why, precisely, did a Newspaper salesman inform you that you had joined the ranks of the darned?
I should really Twitter more frequently.
Oh, in the course of our conversation he found out I was LDS. Then he thought it was his Christian duty to inform me quite harshly where my family and I were headed. It was sweet. He wanted to let me know that storing wheat won’t get me to heaven. I told him thank you but I already knew that. However, the stored food did help out quite a bit during our big windstorm last year… I wonder how well wheat stores in really REALLY hot climates.
I can’t believe how much she looks like you! I’ve been reading your blog for a few years now and it’s amazing how she’s sort of grown into herself.
She is getting to be sooooo grown up! How totally fun!
I love this story. I hope she always thinks she can be like “the dead man.”:-)