The Princess Complex

I have one student who has never been to school before. Let's just say her social skills are...um still developing. She is OBSESSED with princesses. She often wears a crown to school, spins around constantly in her dress and tries to kiss the boys in our class as she exclaims, "My Prince!" Her favorite come back when one of the boys does something boyish, is "Well then you can't come to my princess tea party!" She says it as if everyone in the world is just dying to come to her tea party at play time. Even though she says this everyday, I still find it a bit amusing to watch the boys' reaction (or rather non-reaction). She is quite a cute little girl. Another girl constantly wants to color with her crayons on the desk. As much as I tell her everyday not to do it, and make her erase it during her playtime, there is just something so tempting about drawing on the "forbidden" table! Ugh! Anyway, today, she drew on the table again. When I called her out on it, she tried to cover it with her arms and her body. She didn't want me to see. Her arms weren't big enough to cover the blue crayon scribbling all over the table. As she attempted to cover it, she insisted that she REALLY had not done it. :) I can't help but think that things aren't really all that different when we get older. We make excuses and try to convince ourselves that we really didn't do something we shouldn't have. It would be so much easier if we would just admit our mistakes! Easier said than done I suppose. Impatience is hard for 6 year olds, and it is still hard for me! Today we went around during snack time talking about what we did on the weekend. One girl went on, and on, and on about her weekend. She spared no details: drinking grape juice, walking to the park, putting on a sweater...the whole scoop. All of the kids (ok and me too!) were getting so bored. One girl finally raised her hand and said, "Jina, it is not quickly!" After a few more stories from the same girl about the grape juice, the other girl said, "Jina, faster!" I smirked. It is so hard to wait for something! Though this girl was just waiting for a turn to talk, we are usually all waiting for something. Waiting is hard business, even for "old" teachers like me!