Eggs!

"Teacher Alex the egg's funny." C came up to me with a very puzzled look on her face.

"Let me see," I said, thinking she was just having trouble peeling the hard boiled egg. She led me over to her table and I knelt down to look at the egg in the little cup. "You're right. That egg's not cooked."

Earlier O had noticed that there were no more eggs for peeling and I told him he could take the bowl and go out and ask the other adult out in the hallway if he could have some more for our classroom. He came back in a minute or two later and I didn't think anything of it until C showed me the raw egg she was trying to peel. Kind of a really difficult trick to pull off!

So we laughed about it a little bit, luckily she hadn't cracked it too hard and had even had the good sense to put it back in the little cup once it started leaking. So I went out to get the hard boiled eggs, checking with the other adult in the hallway who told me "Yeah, O didn't ask me about the eggs, I just saw him walking back to class with the bowl. Though I was curious why there were only 10 eggs in the carton when I went to boil them...."

Apparently O had gone out, and lacking an adult for direction decided to help himself to the eggs. He knew they were in the fridge and must have recognized the carton and helped himself to a couple. No problem. That's what Montessori kids are supposed to do after all; solve their own problems.

An off day

"I'm not gonna be your best friend ever again!" L turned back and shouted at S, before continuing to stomp away. I thought about going over to remind her that this wasn't a kind thing to say, but instead I just watched as L stomped herself over to a corner of the playground and sat down. The grumpy look on her face convinced me that I wouldn't be able to get through to her right now, and that maybe a few minutes was what she needed. Well, I take that back, she'd needed a few minutes all day long.

It started in the morning. L was sitting at a table with another child and I went over to speak with them, I think it had something to do with not listening to another child. Anyways, L was just completely not paying attention, slumping down in her chair while opening and closing her mouth. I led her away from her chair and brought her in to the coat room, letting her know that when she was ready to listen to her friends she could come back in.

About 20 minutes later another teacher asked me why L was still in the coat room. Now normally this is a child who would have taken at most 1 minute to decide that she was ready to come back in. The fact that she didn't kind of worried me that maybe I hadn't been clear that it was her choice when to come back in. I had the other teacher invite her in and L meekly returned to her table.

Later I ran in to her trying to bring an extremely soapy scrubbing board over to the sink. L has a habit of not following the presentation of the teacher, and making up her own steps so I asked her to bring that scrub board back and I'd show her how to clean it with a sponge. She made a pouting face, and slowly made her way back to the stand holding the rest of her work. That's when I saw how many bubble where involved in her cloth washing endeavor.

Anyone remember my post last week about how we were out of soap for grating? And how that grated soap was used for cloth washing? Well all of that powdered soap....was gone.

All of it.

Yep. That's right. All that soap (almost 2 cups worth) had gone in to L's wash water...or elsewhere on the cloth washing. I helped her clean it up, encouraging her to fetch clean water and dumping it out when it got too soapy. She got over her grumpiness a bit as I worked with her, though she clammed up when I asked where all the soap had gone. After I fished several rather large pieces out of the basin she did tell me "F just dumped them in there." Now I'm still skeptical that he did that, but I let it go, figuring that as long as she cleaned it all up it wasn't a huge deal.

I think L's lunch time behavior was pretty typical, but at recess she still seemed a little bit lackluster; trudging along rather than running while we went on a group bear hunt. Luckily for both her and me, L took a long nap, not getting up until snack time.

Then we come back to where we started, with her stomping off and denouncing her friend. Sigh, sometimes a nap cures everything, sometimes it doesn't.

Luckily, before I could go over and talk to her one of the other children spotted L as she pouted in the corner. E raced over and crouched down. I have no clue what she said but in a few seconds she was racing over to the children who had made L so upset.

Oh, and I am so proud of how E handled this. The two girls she wanted to talk to were playing with a couple elementary children and she politely said to the elementary kids "I need to talk to these two." They kind of stared at her, dumbstruck, and I guess she took their silence as an ok to go on ahead. She asked why they were mean to L and that she was sad. They didn't say anything back but E set off at a run back towards L.

Unfortunately she got sidetracked by the appearance of her dad and L's predicament seemed completely blown out of her mind. I felt a little disappointed, thinking she wouldn't be able to complete her mission, but as I watched L came waddling out of the corner.

Yes waddling, it's hard to move in full snow gear when your legs are that short!

"Bye E!" She shouted as the other girl ran to get her lunch box. L waved at E as she left, grinning when she got a wave back. Last I saw she was back to playing with S, the girl whom she told that she'd never be her friend again. Guess she just needed someone to sympathize with her today. Too bad it took so long.