Hey, Hey, Hey… Bye Bye
June 3rd. From 7:45-11:15 I had my darlings still. I have done this "goodbye" thing several times now, but it never gets easier. I am ready for the "break" and glad that this year was mostly successful, but goodbye still stings.
Three of my charges were not at school today. One of them was only recently released from the hospital after developing a very bad case of pneumonia. He spent eleven days in the hospital all together, five of them in the intensive care unit at a Children’s Hospital. I went to visit him there last week, and was quite impressed with the hospital. It is not the main and very well known children’s hospital in my town, but I found it to be much more child friendly than its larger rival. I am keeping in touch with his parents, and I will have him again next year, so it is not as bittersweet for him.
Those of my darlings as came were in rare and hilarious form today. The main intent of this entry is to relate some of the things I overheard as they were coloring, cleaning, eating, and packing up today.
One of my little girls was quite distraught at the bathroom this morning, when I asked her what was wrong she very tearily exclaimed that another little girl had yelled at her. I expressed some disbelief at this, since the child mentioned has barely uttered two words together all year. In fact I have been working very hard to get her to talk. She assured me that it was true however. Seeing that she was very distraught and knowing this was my last day to have her be "mine" I responded by just pulling her onto my lap. We rocked for a moment and then I tole her it was time to be a big girl because she was in first grade now.
"I don’t want to be in first grade!"
"You don’t?"
"No! I don’t want to be in first grade, I want to be in high school!"
I explained to her that you had to go to first grade then second, etc. before you could go to highschool. She was rather unimpressed with following formality.
"I’m supposed to be in highschool. High school is my favorite subject!"
Upon inquiring as to the reasons behind this I was informed that in high school they teach you how to draw flowers, and how to play games, and how to dance.
Later I overheard the following exchange between the same child and her classmates:
Boy: EWWw! She said she kisses Ryan!
Fancy Nancy: I do not!
Boy: But you always tell us you kiss him.
Fancy Nancy: I do not kiss him! I lie! I always lie! I lie every single day. All I do is lie, lie lie! Ok. I just keep lying. I was lying about kissing him! I’ll kiss him when I’m a grownup then it won’t be gross.
Boy at different table: You aren’t supposed to lie at school!
(But its ok everywhere else, apparently.)
Overheard at dismissal time:
Boy One: You can’t do anything dangerous! (Insert name here) said that if you did something dangerous and you got hurt she would break up with you!
Boy Two: I know she did, but… she didn’t mean it.
Then came dismissal, and one little boy who broke down sobbing. He really didn’t want to leave. It was very hard to say goodbye to him, because if I’m honest, he was my baby. As much as you are not "supposed" to have a favorite, sometimes there is one that just creeps into your heart. I love all my kids, don’t get me wrong, but this little darlin’ stole my heart completely. He was bouncing around grinning and having a great time, until it was time to leave. Then I noticed he was sitting on his square… perfectly still, and perfectly silently. This child is never still. He is also never silent. When I called him over to get his bag his little face just crumpled and he more or less threw himself at me. It was very hard not to cry then, and I would be lying if I said I wasn’t crying now. Its a good thing, but its still sad.
So now that I brought the entry to an end on a melancholy note….