Is exactly what Madison's preschool teacher said to me when I went to pick her up on her first day of school.
She looks pretty innocent, right? Exactly the word I would never use to describe Madi. She is anything but. Oh man, I don't even know where to begin.
It started with taking pictures of her at home. She was excited, and couldn't wait to go.
If only I had told her that she was going to have to follow Rules. She probably would have curled back up in her bed and went back to sleep, saying, "I don't want nothin to do with that Mom. Wake me in a year. I might be ready then."
I can only imagine how the first day went, of course, I did get quite a few stories. Her teacher (whom I love) says, "It went okay. Let me give you a few examples," and mostly to herself, I think, she says, "ohhh there are so many examples..."
She starts with the playground and what happened there.
They head out to the playground, and Madi kicks off her shoes and goes running to play. And what do you think happened? Yes, Ms. Lewann tells her, hold up girlfriend, this is not the beach, put your shoes back on. And I can imagine the look she got.
Like, what do you mean? The playground is full of sand, I need to be barefoot. But, she did put her shoes back on. And then, about 2 minutes later Ms. Lewann told me that Madi went and sat on a bench by herself, kind of looking around slowly at her surroundings while she tried to sneak her shoes back off.
Rules.
We are not used to the kind of rules there are at school. We are used to, don't bite your sister, don't carry the cat around by her tail, sit in your chair until you are finished with your food, stop coloring on the furniture, get out of my makeup, please Madi, would you just listen?
Not, time to line up, go to the bathroom, and listen ALL THE TIME.
The next thing she did (or the next example I got), her teacher had all the kids sitting and quiet on the rug for circle time. When she goes to start the story, Madison gets up, and says, "wait, wait, I have to tell you a secret." So she runs over to Ms. Lewann, and precedes to tell her absolutely nothing in her ear. Goes in for one more "secret", and then says, "okay, I'm ready." And she runs back to her spot.
The last example I got was they went to go potty and wash their hands, which Madi said, "I don't have to go to the bathroom." But Ms. Lewann made her go and wash her hands anyway. That is the Rule. On the way back to their classroom for snack, Madi gets lost...in the younger kids' class, playing with the toys. Hmmm. Made me remember the one time at Sunday school, when they almost lost her twice, named her the escape artist, and she was 2. Anyway, so before we left, I asked Madi if she had a good first day of school.
She looked directly at Ms. Lewann, and said, "Hmph, NO!" Hahahaha, ah I feel sorry for Ms. Lewann. My Madi does not follow rules. And she is funny about it, which makes it harder.
She cracks me up all the time, and I'm constantly trying to hide my face from her.
So the next day of preschool, went, um, I would say worse. Made me question my parenting skills.
Once again, I go to pick her up, ready for anything. Hoping that she didn't bite off a child's finger, or worse, the entire arm, or poke someone's eye out with something.
Ms. Lewann had them line up to go outside to the playground. They started to walk out and she was counting the kids in line, only to find out that she was missing someone.
I'm going to give you a second to try to figure out who was missing.
Have you figured it out yet? Good. I can continue. Well, Ms. Lewann says, "I'm missing someone, who am I missing?" And the kids in line, point, and say, "Madison is, and she's over there playing."
Oh man, how many times is this kid going to do what she wants to do? And all the kids in her class I'm sure have pegged her as the naughty girl.
So Ms. Lewann says, "Madison, come on and get in line." Too which Madi completely ignores her and continues on in her own little world where only Madi lives. So again, more firmly this time, "Madison, get in line now."
And my Madi throws herself on the ground, crosses her arms, and let's out a humph. Then she found herself being dragged to the line by the teacher. Because not one of the teachers scared her enough with their threats. This is the part of the story when you find out that all of the teachers at the preschool have at one time said, "you are nothing like your sister are you?"
You got that right!
Riley is doing great in Kindergarten and even got 3 bengal paws one day, one for good behavior and the other 2 for being the only kid in class that did the homework correctly. And she hides her bengal paws behind her back everyday like it's going to be some big surprise that she was such a well behaved little girl.
(BTW...part of me just threw that bit in there about Riley to distract you from how bad Madi has been at school. Just FYI, I am 1 for 2 in the behavior department with my children. I think that's pretty good so far, and I gave up on my Mom of the Year award a loooooong time ago :)
So back to Madi, the only other thing she did happened again at circle time. And it's not so bad....but once again, it's after the teacher gets everyone quiet and sitting for circle time, when Madi chooses to make a scene.
Basically, she just stands up, right before the story, and goes, "Blaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!" And sits back down. Riley thinks it's hysterical every time I tell that story.
So before I left on Thursday, I told the teachers to have a restful weekend, because Madi would indeed be back on Tuesday.
But that was after I made her apologize to Ms. Lewann for not listening, and after I threatened to never bring her back to school again.
Oh That Girl...
I couldn't have said it better myself.
:)
