Happy Frog does dishes

Ladybug has been in kindergarten for about a month.

She is smart. And sweet. And ready to please. And independent. And opinionated. And stubborn. And she is absolutely right all the time. No matter how smart she is, she is not academically inclined. Some people may say that it is too early to make that kind of statement. I base this on her unwillingness to put any effort into learning. She even to finds enjoyment in refusing to learn to read.

I wasn't all that concerned about her being in kindergarten though. I mean she has been in a large day care environment for 4 years. Teachers, classrooms, schedules. Nothing new there. This should have been an easy transition.

Her teacher has a frog chart to let the parents know about how the children are doing during the day. It is sent home every day. And at the end of the week the parent's must sign it to prove that they have seen it. There is the:

Happy frog -- meaning only minor corrections through the day.
Uh oh frog -- meaning that the child needed repeated redirection to get them on track
Sad frog -- meaning that nothing was working.

And when there is an uh oh frog on the chart a note comes home to explain what the issue was. Ladybug has been on the happy frog. She has not been on the sad frog. And she has been on the uh oh frog more times then I care to admit. Okay -- about 2 or 3 times a week. While some parents are still waiting for that first note from the teacher I am well verse in them. Issues needing to be addressed include: snipping scissors at a friend, talking too much, talking too loud, not listening, not following directions, hitting, pushing, and giving friends an attitude. None of this is surprising -- just disappointing. I need to remind myself that all those things that are driving me insane right now will likely serve her well as an adult.

In contrast, she has been helpful and willing at home. She cam home with an uh oh frog 3 times this week. And she did the dishes 5 times this week. I didn't ask. I mean, we have a dishwasher. I stick the dishes in there, flip a switch and walk away. But she wanted to do the dishes, the old fashioned way. So I let. She got the stool out, put it up to the sink and washed dishes. I still ran them through the dish washer but she felt good about her contribution. And yesterday I did a few dishes by hand and discovered the sponge was so soaked with dish soap that I didn't need to add any to it in order to wash a full load of dishes. I guess we need to have a little chat about using only what she needs. But at least I don't need to worry about her not using soap.

Mean Mama