discovering blogdom

this is my first ever attempt at creating a blog. i expect i'll make lots of mistakes and things will look weird for awhile, until i get the hang of it. eventually i hope to post anecdotes from my work with children, insights on human behavior gleaned from observing my students, and images i have created, inspired by their play or that i create for them.

this year i have a class of seven boys, ages 3-5, with one assistant. class is from 9:00 am unti noon, with everyone staying for lunch until 1:00pm this year, and one child who comes at 7:30 for childcare. last year we had up to 8 children in the morning, and the same in the afternoon, but this year enrollment in this age group is down all over the community. we have just started an afternoon drama class on fridays, consulting with the Seattle Children's Theatre where my assistant, Gayle, took a class this summer.

i'm enjoying having all boys. i confess to being a bit nervous at first, but the boys themselves breathed a sigh of relief when they learned there would be no girls in the class. at this age they are very consiously learning to be male, and having a female in the class seems to complicate things. then they have to define themselves as different from the girls, instead of focusing on their own interests, and competition--yes even at age 4 or 5--for the girls attention interferes with their friendships.

Brady and Brandon--i've changed the names to protect the guilty--started the year at loggerheads. by week 4 they had progressed to being best friends--until Sarah, an alumni from last year, joined us for a few days. suddenly Brandon was left out in the cold as sarah monopolized brady's attention. she knew him from last year, and wasn't ready for the work of making friends with a new person. last year, brady and all the other boys followed her around, rescued her when she was the princess captured by the bad guys, and brought her boquets. there were no flowers in the yard in february, so they picked the only thing green, handfuls of sage leaves. sarah announced she would marry one of them on her birthday in june, and by may she had narrowed her choice to two, and finally to one, jordan. jordan was wise about sex. his mother had filled him in on the details of how babies are made. so when sarah announced that she would marry him on his birthday, he said, "good, then we can make a baby"--and he knew just how to do it. some one pointed out to him that babies are alot of work, and you don't have time to play. you have to spend all your time taking care of the baby. hm. jordan backed out of the marriage and decided he would just be a big brother for now.