A Dog Like Jack

I thought I was being pretty clever throwing a few story books in the library bag. "I'll entice David with books full of pictures of dogs and get to read fiction instead of a book on hurricanes." Big mistake. The last three pages of "A Dog Like Jack" show a dead Jack in the animal clinic, Jack being buried in a hole in the ground, and a little boy who doesn't want another dog because there won't ever be a dog like Jack. I will get better at skimming books before reading them aloud at bedtime. I pretty much felt like doo doo seeing tears come out of David's eyes and hearing him say, "I don't want Scout to die." I mean, who sends their kid to bed that way? They should put those kinds of books in their own section. I'll happily read about atmospheric pressure and trade winds tomorrow.

Thoughts on school

I know I just blogged that we are all enrolled for next year and I feel good about the decision; but right now, I am just ready for this year to be over and not to have to think about school for awhile.
It's nothing bad, but school, and the conversations we are having are just making my brain hurt right now.
Getting Drew from school seems to be such a chore lately. For one, David is with me and Drew is on the playground so getting them both to leave is a hassle. Plus, I check with Drew's teachers on how his "self-control issues" have been. Sometimes, it's my most dreaded ten minutes of the day. Case in point, last week, Drew pushed this sweet little girl, she feel into a table and it left a bruise on her back. When Keith got the whole story from Drew we found out that this girl was pretending to be a baby and kept crying. Drew's BF told him to "get her" so Drew took her down. Doesn't make it right in the least but at least there was some sort of explanation. Anyway, the next morning after taking David to school we went to Target to buy Emily a Hello Kitty ice pack. Drew and I noticed lots of toys that we wished we could buy, but darn it, all of our money had to go towards helping our friend that he hurt. So today, I am trying to wrangle both boys plus an extra and Emily's grandmother comes over to tell me they appreciated it. While I am telling her no thanks is necessary and we are not raising a boy who pushes girls, I find all three boys in my care clustered around another student's baby brother. They are all pointing at him saying stuff like, "Wow, what a weird looking baby" and "That is a funny looking baby." The child did look like Ernie from Bert and Ernie. He has lots of sticking up black hair. But gee guys, think it, don't say it. I have to move from further discussion of last week's push incident to telling the mom that all three boys were bald babies and they aren't used to babies with so much hair. And he is adorable and precious. And I tell them not to hurt the babies feelings. My head is pounding and it's only 11:40.
David has presented me with different challenges. I think there are great reasons to homeschool or to attend private Christian schools. But at this juncture, we are throwing our hat in with the public school system. I had no idea that I would need to explain our beliefs in such detail in pre-k. Case in point, David studied space, so we have been checking out books on space. In reading a book about the sun, David grew very indignant saying that the book was lying and that God is the one who created it all. This grew into a mini lesson on Creationism and how some things in books may not be true. Then, some goober in David's class brought a picture of his dog Zeus for his "Z" surprise letter sack. This kid's clue was "the name of a god." And it stumped David because God's name isn't Zeus. So we got to talk about false gods that afternoon.
And while David's preschool/mother's day out was Church of Christ, Drew is attending a secular one. I often think if they could just tell him, "Jesus wants you to be nice to your friends," they would have a better boy. But they can't. At least one kid in his class is Muslim. It's quite the little multicultural crew there. So it's left to me. We talk and talk about it at home. I find myself working to teach values way more than I did last year. I think I coasted knowing that David was getting taught the Bible at his school last year and I didn't focus on it as much as I do this year.
Like I said, it's nothing bad or major. Getting opportunities to answer the boys' questions are a great thing. They won't suffer from learning early on to let their lights shine and to stand up for what they believe in.
But all of this is why I keep falling asleep on the couch at ten o'clock. It's exhausting.