Distractions

The kid was off from school today.

Florida State has something called Voluntary Pre Kindergarten, or VPK. It’s a program you sign up to when your child turns four, for which you get a certificate, so your child can go to Pre School for free. You take the piece of paper to the school of your choice, that accepts VPKs (not all of the school do) and as long as they have room, your kid can go to school for free, three hours a day, five days a week.

It’s meant to help the children get used to attending school, and a way for moms to get some time back or go back to work.

It’s been a few weeks now and I can honestly say, I don’t like the kid going to school five days a week.

First of all, the kid is reversing. Her handwriting is getting a little worse and her attitude has change. The second one might just be her growing up, but when she’s playing with her regular friends, she behaves a little better than when she’s at school. Also, it doesn’t help that her school is also all the way across town, a good twenty-five minute drive on a good day.

Don’t get me wrong, I love her school. I picked that school on purpose, and one day a week, she has dance class on that side of town. Her class has only eight kids for two teachers which is awesome. Her school is inside a museum of art and the curriculum reflects that, meaning that every month they have a new artist that the kids focus on, and all the lessons surround that artist. This month is Georgia O’ Keeffe. Plus she goes in the afternoon, so nobody has to be rushed in the morning. I get three hours to write.

The thing is that 2kicks is a homeschooled kid. I know parents don’t have to start this early and I didn’t start homeschooling her with a serious curriculum, on purpose. I mostly read to her, and she practices on workbooks that I find at costco. The point is that at home, if and when she gets distracted, I can bring her back to focus. But more often than not, I just let her be. Because she’s four! And once she’s done with one thing she wants to play.

On that note, she gets it from me. I’m ridiculously easy to distract. This is something that I’ve been working on. But the truth is sometimes it takes nothing more than a text, and I can no longer focus on my task at hand. That might be a little simplified, but you get the point.

At school, she sees that the kids that need more attention get more attention, so she’s decided not to know how to write her name, for example. The other day, she somehow forgot how to share a toy, and somehow got scratched in the face. I didn’t get mad, because I know the other child and they weren’t trying to be mean to each other, but they wanted the same toy. Sharing is something that I work really hard on. I don’t want her to need possessions, so at home or any where we go, like libraries and museums, we don’t cry for toys. With Baby Shark and Curly Cute, the rule at my house is that we do not fight for a toy. If we catch them not sharing, they all loose the toys.

Chevy is out of town again, so yesterday the writer and Baby Shark came over for the afternoon. I think the Writer just needed some time to have an adult conversation. The two of us and the husband were sitting outside having a drink while the kids played inside. At one point, I heard them and went inside to check on them and they were fine. The second time that their playing disrupted the adult conversation, I was about to stand again, but instead I said to the husband,

“Can you see them?”

“Yes,” He said

“Can you say something to them?” I asked again

“I have a good mind to just closing the door, and let them deal with it,” He answered.

“Really?” I asked, a bit shocked, honestly. And that’s when the Writer said

“I’m with him! Those two a seriously distracting…”

Yes. Yes they are.