Is it a boy thing? or a Mac thing?
Mac wasn’t the least bit excited about school holidays before they came. He kept saying he wanted to keep going to school, that holidays wouldn’t be fun, he wasn’t excited. Every time we asked was he excited he responded with a clear stomp of his left foot where the recorded message plays a strong “NO”. We checked if he was ‘tricking’… “NO”.
Until, it dawned on me… Mac thought I was just going to take HIM out of school for six weeks. He didn’t realise EVERYONE would be on holidays, that the school would be empty, no kids, no teachers, no gardener… not one person.
And so, on explaining this concept I revisited our earlier conversation…
Would school be boring if he was the only one there? “YES”
Did he still want to come every day when no kids would be there? “NO”
Are holidays starting to sound quite fun? “YES”
So you would think I would be smarter second time round… apparently “NO”.
As holidays drew to an end, start of term edged closer, everyone wanted to know if Mac was excited about going back to school… surprisingly the answer was “NO”.
Every time, “NO”, “NO”, “NO”.
I absolutely understand some kids really don’t like going to school. Mac IS NOT one of them. He squeals with delight on arrival. I am sure he would live there if he was allowed – particularly if they had night classes so sleeping wasn’t required.
And then, I remembered, didn’t I just tell him “no-one would be there, that school would be empty, not a soul in the place, no kids, no teachers, no gardener, it would be boring, boring, boring”.
a-ha!
So, I explained about the new year, new term. How the sixth graders have moved on to high-school and everyone else moves up a year. There would be a whole bunch of new Kindergarten kids but all the teachers and kids would be back… and so would the gardner.
His face just lit up and he laughed out loud – particularly at the idea of new ‘Kindy kids’.
Finally, just a day before he started again we had it sorted.
I now realise I have a very ‘literal child’ on my hands. I need to take the time to explain many of the small, seemingly inconsequential things to him. I think being ‘non-verbal’ he misses the ‘but why’ opportunities and so doesn’t always get the amount of detail he needs. When I am with other kids I am blown away by how many questions they ask – it’s good for me to spend time with others because I get to learn the level of detail they crave.
And was he excited about going to back to school… “Oh YEAH” three hearty taps on the “YES” switch was clear confirmation.