Sad

Don't you hate when your kids are sad and there is nothing you can do about it?

I worked at the school book fair today and bought Aidan's teacher a few books off his wish list. I ran them down to his classroom and just as I was walking in the door, Mr. K was speaking to Aidan about something he was doing wrong on his paper (rather harshly I might add). I saw Aidan's face and knew he could burst into tears at any second. He was trying so hard to hold it together. He didn't see me come in the room and as I was leaving I tapped him on the shoulder and smiled at him and he just looked up at me with the saddest face. Didn't even smile at me. I wanted to give him a huge hug but I didn't.

Before I left the book fair, I went down to the lunchroom to see the boys. I found Aidan first and went over and asked how he was. I asked what he was so upset about in class and he just told me "Nothing". He just did not want to talk about it. Aidan can get overwhelmed when a task is hard for him. He would much rather just give up but that is not an option in Mr. K's class. He will make the student try and try and try until they get it. I suppose that is a great way to encourage children to take risks in their learning. But for goodness sake I think he can do it in a gentler way. He just has a harshness about him when speaking to the children.

Last night at dinner, I asked the kids to name one good thing and one bad thing that happened that day. Aidan's good thing was "I wanted to cry when we were doing math because it was too hard but I didn't". How is that for heartbreaking? Turns out they were working with coins and Mr. K had to have them figure out how much of something they could buy with the coins they had. Honestly (and I was a Kindergarten teacher), I think that is a challenging thing for kindergarteners. But Aidan got through it. And he didn't cry.