14th January 2008

Bring out the bubblewrap!

posted in Parenting, Pop Culture, School |

The dotter is quite mumchance about her days at school or at after-care.  Trying to get her to talk about it is…well, you either do a version of Twenty Questions, or wait until the Feeling Game at bedtime, at which point some info may (may) come out.  The Twenty Questions approach needs variation, so I can:

  1. Ask whether she had gym, library, or music that day.
  2. Ask who was teacher’s helper.
  3. Ask what book was read today, and what it was about…

You get the drift.  It’s like getting blood from a stone, and I’m sure we’ll be getting the "Where did you go?"  "Out."  "What did you do?"  "Nothing." conversation when she’s older.

So the other day, when she said that she had had gym that day, I asked her, "So what did you do?"

She shrugged and said, "I don’t remember."

AAARRRGGGGHHHHHH!!!

Desperate to get some detail out of her, I asked, "Did you do cartwheels in gym today?"

Dotter shook her head.  "No, we’re not allowed to.  We might get hurt."

OmegaDad and I blinked at each other across the table.  After a moment, I asked, "Did you play games in gym?  Like…like Red Rover?"

Dotter shook her head again.  "No, we can’t play that.  Someone might fall down."

We blinked again.  OmegaDad said to me, in an aside, "Oh, goodness no, we can’t have that!" and then asked, "So what do you do in gym?"

Dotter said, "We do exercises."

Bleah!

I can report, having been at a school do in the gymnasium where there were oodles of youngsters with their families, that many of the girls know how to do cartwheels.  This is a relief.  Even though I am consumed with envy, because I was never able to do cartwheels, being too wussy to actually get my legs straight up and about.

And I am definitely not a fan of, say, Dodge Ball, which I remember as a source of stinging baps from balls hurled with vigor by the bigger and more bullyish of the boys.

But…but…sheesh, guys–these are five-year-olds!  Making them do exercises?!  Gak!  Way to go to make physical activity really appealing and a life-long passion, eh?!

I am tempted to go into a tirade that starts with, "In my day, sonny, we had to walk to school uphill both ways!"  It just makes me sad that some fear of litigation, or general dismay at kids being kids, has led to this.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 14th, 2008 at 8:51 pm and is filed under Parenting, Pop Culture, School. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

There are currently 6 responses to “Bring out the bubblewrap!”

  1. 1 On January 15th, 2008, Trope said:

    (waves) Hi there! I just came over from American Family’s blog, and I wanted to let you know that I enjoyed your recent posts and I’m going to lurk for a while. I have an infant, so the dotter sounds like a big kid to me! Stay warm up there.

  2. 2 On January 15th, 2008, Spacemom said:

    We have a similar problem some days. I have learned to lead the questions:
    “What game did you play in gym today?” or “Did you paint or draw in art today?” “what was the pattern today?” or “What Teacher choice activity did you do today?”

    As for gym, you should see OUR gym teacher. She still signs her name with cute little hearts over the i’s. She told the kids that cereal is a bad choice for breakfast because it has too much sugar (Dude, cereal is about the only food I can feed my 40 lb 5.5 year old. Damn, don’t mess with what works). and she insituted a walk program in the gym on Friday mornings. You have to drive (!) your child to school early to walk around the gym to get exercise? Thanks, but no thanks! I find other ways to get my kids exercise.

  3. 3 On January 15th, 2008, Julie Pippert said:

    AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!

    This is one of the many crazy, insane, over-the-top CYA reasons why I am ready to yank Patience out of school.

    (Umm sorry to yell. I am just at the end of my rope with school.)

    Okay we play the Highs and Lows, Bests and Worsts game.

    I avoid “yes/no” questions for obvious “dental” reasons and I think open-ended freaks out Miss P, so this is a synopsis she feel comfortable with.

    In other words, I understand. :)

  4. 4 On January 15th, 2008, Jane said:

    Oh-I was amazed and aghast when I learned that the kids weren’t ever allowed to play Red Rover. Safety issues-as you say. So we do what any great fun but oh-my-gosh-so-unsafe parents would…we play it like crazy at birthday parties!

  5. 5 On January 15th, 2008, noreen said:

    Oh I went through that. We learned what happened in kindergarten when our son went to first grade, what happened in first grade when he when to second, etc., etc. I learned that when I drove him places he would open up–years later as a social worker I discovered clients opened up when driving them somewhere. My daughter, she talked my ear off. Wait until they’re adults and they are telling you high school stories that you’re glad you didn’t know about when they were at that age. It does get better.

  6. 6 On January 17th, 2008, Lane said:

    Cuz from Memphis here…you talking about cartwheels reminds me of our summers in Sunny-land playing on a canvas in Grandmother’s yard trying to get some ’skills’. Nice days.

Leave a Reply