(no subject)

[rivka]

It's funny the way kids' ages telescope.

Two kids on my Friends List are starting kindergarten this fall, just like Alex. (Except that Alex started June 1, but never mind that.) One of these kids, I've always thought of as significantly older than Alex. The other, I've always thought of as significantly younger than Alex. My view of their relative ages was cemented in their infancy, when a few months' gap is huge. But now they are all kindergarteners, and more or less the same age.

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I've been feeling really quiet in LJ these days. There is work stuff going on that I can't really talk about, and it consumes a lot of my emotional energy. Not posting about that stuff winds up meaning not posting at all. You could try asking questions if you felt like it, or you could just, you know, enjoy the silence.

Comments

[jenett]

I am loving your blogging about the homeschooling, so a related question: what's the thing that's really surprised you about doing it so far, the thing you wouldn't have expected when you started?

[rivka.livejournal.com]

I am loving your blogging about the homeschooling, so a related question: what's the thing that's really surprised you about doing it so far, the thing you wouldn't have expected when you started?

In nursery school, Alex was really emotional about peer situations. She cried a lot over normal peer conflicts and spent a lot of time obsessively analyzing things like, I don't know, another kid criticizing her color choices in a drawing. I mean, nine months after that happened she would still remember it and bring it up.

When we brought her home full-time, the hypersensitivity dried up completely. She'll come to me and report "Soandso hit me and I told him I didn't like it and he didn't stop!" and then go back and play with Soandso again, when previously that would have led to massive sobbing meltdowns. I haven't heard obsessive over-analysis of a peer situation in a couple of months.

I think that Alex is probably an introvert who was stressed out by being in group situations all day. She loves playing with other kids when she does get together with them, and approaches strange kids in public to suggest that they play together. She seems socially fine. But she likes having a lot of time to play by herself.

I totally did not expect that she would do better, emotionally, with less peer contact.