What The Boys Have Learned in School
In just two weeks, Axel’s learned:
How to sit criss-cross applesauce.
Sitting criss-cross applesauce is much more fun when you invite friends or parents to join you. It’s also far more fun that sitting cross-legged, just as eating miniature trees is a blast, while eating broccoli is kind of a bore.
(Criss-cross applesauce demonstration, with Axel’s lovely grandmother, who just celebrated her birthday. Happy Birthday, Omis!)
Baby brothers are not masters of crisscross anything, no matter how often you provide demonstrations and interactive lessons, helpfully yanking chubby legs this way and that.
The appropriate answer to, “What did you do today at school?” is “Nothin’.” Even when you did exciting pratical life “work” and swept and poured water to your heart’s content and stacked towers of blocks, you must respond, “Nothin.”
“Wanna trade?” keeps the lunch room going ’round.
Groaning “Oh MAN” is hilarious.
Axel’s name starts with the letter “A.” Serendipitously, so does Ambulance, his favorite vehicle of all time. And so does the Alphabet! And the Alphabet Song! And the word AND! Oh MAN!
I’m not sure that his school gets all the credit for his ability to spell his name – after all, it is written in big wooden letters on the wall of Axel’s room – but the other kids do get 100% of the credit for his discovery of the power of the almighty swap.
Want to play with the broom? Just swap it for the popper, and both you and your brother will be happy. Eaten all your berries but want a few more? Just ask your grandfather to trade, and sweetly offer your untouched potato salad. Grandparents are the best trading partners – they never object, unlike little brothers who will keep hold of trains no matter what enticing alternatives are offered. Axel’s becoming quite a bargainer, and Jonas is the (sometimes) beneficiary of his clever swaps. It may be time for a trip to the flea market, where Axel can really learn how it’s done.
Jonas has learned:
When we walk through the door to his school, he is going to go to his classroom. And we are going to leave. And he is going to stay. This is not necessarily a good thing.
He gets multiple hugs when he’s picked up – not to mention hugs throughout the day from his teachers.
Tilting your head to one side and chanting, “Mo, mo, mo” while clapping your fists together always, always gets you a second helping of graham crackers.
People other than his mother and brother know the words to Itsy Bitsy Spider – his teachers and his grandmother know it, too. A world in which dozens – hundreds! thousands! millions! – of people know Itsy Bitsy Spider, and can dance with their fingers right along with Jos, who earnestly pushes his pinky to his thumb as he follows along with the singer, is a wonderful one. A heavenly day for Jos would include a neverending Itsy Bitsy Spider sing-a-long, a feast of ‘nanas and milk, visits from friendly dogs, and then a rousing round of banging a stick with a tree and playing chase. Luckily, lots of his days include some of those things, and that more than balances out the still tearful drop-offs – especially because he now gets his mama all to himself on Friday mornings, when Axel’s at school and I’m not working. At least, I hope they do.
How’s the start to the school year going for you and yours?
Ah, we get the response of “I dunno” for EVERYTHING! It is kind of infuriating, I mean, he’s not even 3 yet! And its not like we say “I don’t know” all the time. I thought they would be a lot older when rote responses came into play, but I guess I am glad we are not the only ones getting them!
I’ve found that the only time I can get real information about what occurs on school grounds is at bedtime, when the kids are willing to tell me ANYTHING in a ploy to stay awake longer. At bedtime they’ll stretch out their elaboration of the day–”I mean, before snack time we get in line? And everybody washes hands or if you have to you get a drink. No, wait, before that–?”
But the only way to REALLY know what’s going on is to volunteer. I volunteered for a grand total of one hour in Silas’s kindergarten way back when and learned more than I did the entire two years he was at that school.
That’s an incredible list of stuff they’ve learned! I’m impressed.
Of my kids the six year old is the least likely to tell me anything about school, and so far this year all she’ll do is hold out her hands like she’s telling a fish story and measure in the air how much good and how much bad there was in the day.
What a couple of cuties!
Little Man is in the same room but has a new teacher. Seems to be going fine. He makes up stories for us about what happened at school, and makes up stories for them about what happened at home (this is a little worrisome).
Sprout moved up to the toddler room and has slept 12 hours every night since. He had a banner week last week when we were on vacation, though! He says “Da” at the appropriate time, and he takes a few steps at a time. Yay!
I was informed last night that you don’t step ON rugs, you walk AROUND rugs. That and how important it is to push in your chair. (Happy Birthday Omis!)
hello–two-weeks-behind-Axel, here. (Although sadly still not in potty training.) Yesterday my son and I were walking home from his third day of nursery school, and he starting telling me about “criss-cross applesauce,” and I would have had NO IDEA what he was talking about unless Axel had done it first–two weeks before us, more or less–and I had read about it on your blog. You’re better than Penelope Leach!