Survived

That's what I did today. Survive. That's what the first day of kindergarten is all about.

I've had criers before. Last year I had one who cried all day every day for the first week of school. Then just in the mornings for a few weeks. But today took crier to a whole new level. See, I have a student from the Ukraine. Let's call him G. G speaks very little to no English.

Well somehow G got on the wrong bus this morning and ended up at Ogletree instead of AEEC. So someone went to get him. By the time he got to school, I had the rest of the class calmed down and our day started. It got interrupted. G came in and started saying "I want to go inside." I said "Baby, you are inside, you are inside the classroom. You are at school. School is inside." This continued for about 20 minutes. I guess G got frustrated and started to cry scream. I mean wow! He almost gagged himself several times because of the screaming.

When we got outside to play, he cried because we went outside. When we came back inside he cried because we came back inside. When we were "practicing" lining up, he cried. I finally got frustrated and called for backup. Someone came and G calmed down for the 10 minutes they were in the room. When they left, it started up. He cried through 3 or 4 stories. He cried through the lunch line. He REFUSED to eat. He cried and cried and cried.

Finally, our reading coach came and somewhat force fed him. She ended up telling him "First eat, then go home" and he all of a sudden stopped. "Go Home?"

The last 20 minutes of my day were definitely the most peaceful. So with all that said, I survived.

(Side note- I do feel very sorry for G. I cannot imagine going to another country to live and not knowing anything they are saying. Poor baby just wanted to make sure he was going home but didn't know how to communicate it! I can't wait until our ELL's start with Rosetta Stone.)