I take my kids to preschool on Monday and we go into my daughter’s classroom to hang up her coat in her cubby.
I look up and notice the teacher has kites on the walls with each child’s name on it. Below the kites are ribbons with each achievement the child has learned. Under my daughter’s name is the following:
Can count to 20
Knows shapes
Knows colors
Can spell first and last name
Can spell classmates’ names
Knows letters A-Z
Knows days of the week and months of the year
Knows phone number
So I’m beaming, right? My baby is smart and I’m such a good mom and blah, blah, blah. I look at the other kids’ kites and I notice some only have a few ribbons or none at all (these are some of the newbies to the class).
“Sweetie,” I ask my daughter, “since you know your colors and letters and shapes, are you helping your friends’ learn theirs?”
She looks up at the kites and then back at me. She smiles. “Nope.”
“Why not? If you already know how to count and know the days of the week, why wouldn’t you help your friends?”
“Because,” she says, “I’m helping ME. I don’t need to help my friends.”
Um, yeah. I’m SUCH a good mom.
Clarification: I do not think that my daughter necessarily needs to take on the teacher role, I just found it odd that she was so adamant against helping others. Crap, where’s that parenting instruction manual when you need it!
I think its kinda like that whole “sharing” phase. Some kids are willing to hand over their toys to a sibling/friend and others will have to have the toy pried from their hands before they’d give it up. Same thing… sorta. Some kids are willing to be teacher’s helpers, and some kids are content with knowing that they “get it”. It’ll pass. It may be in the way that the teacher has the children interacting with each other. Like, do they ever work/play in groups and get the opportunity to assist others in projects? Stuff like that.
If you wanna make it a teaching moment for her, you can start having her help her little brother with projects so that she can see how fun it is to help others =). Don’t sweat it too much though, its completely normal.
@Barbara – Yup, they rotate to the different centers and get paired up with a buddy. Maybe she just doesn’t like her buddy. I don’t know. She’s usually such a caring little girl, so that was weird. I know it’s just a statement, but you know, I want to raise top-notch kids, so I overreact to everything. LOL
hi!
I recently started following your blog! I totally understand. My son has his days when he will be the teacher’s helper and pass out materials to his classmates for her, etc… and then there are other days/moments when he feels like it’s all about him. No sweat, though… this too shall pass. Not to mention, some of the most well-adjusted adults have those “it’s all about me” moments too.
.-= Alicia ´s last blog ..Beach Bum Baby =-.
LOL….
Aww, lol. That is GREAT that she’s doing so well learning, though. Absolutely wonderful, she’s a very smart girl it seems. I don’t know what to tell you about her not wanting to help her classmates…maybe its normal? I don’t know. When I was a kid, I loved to help my friends learn, but my brother didn’t. So I don’t know. But the suggestion of having her help her brother do projects is a great one!
well, its great that she is so smart-congrats mom! kids come into things on their own sometimes, so when she feels like it, she will help her friends. for me, i’ve learned that when i least expect it (and sometimes when she doesn’t know i’m watching or listening), my daughter is the most nurturing and helpful 😉
I loved this post so much, it made me bust out laughing, kids are so honest with their feelings..lol don’t worry, sharing comes naturally to kids.