From the mail

I had occasion to  contact our school counselor this week. 
Some things going on with Esme and I always try to keep people informed about things that might affect day to day operations in school.


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She's testing the waters a bit if you want a cliche, but she sort of defies cliche.

The other day she came in after school and said, "Oh, I need to go back to my classroom and get something I forgot!!"

I told her that once she's checked in she isn't allowed to leave again except for restroom use, sorry.

"But it's the model magic I made this morning here at Mental Daycare!"

"I'm sorry, Kiddo, you can't, it's against those rules I'm always telling you about."

She tried one more time to ask, saying that when her mom comes, her mom would go to her classroom with her. I said no, that I'm not supposed to be sending kids into the building after hours.

"Tomorrow, Esme."  She understood. Even said so.

When her mom came to get her, she said, "Mom I need to go into the hallway with you!!"

They walked out together, I was busy keeping James and Hayden from hitting each other again, and didn't really pay attention, after all she was with her mom.

But then, they didn't come back for about 10 minutes.

When they did, I asked what had taken them so long, "Where did you go, Esme?"

She held up a little bag and said, "Oh I got my model magic creations."

I called her on it, "Esme! I told you that you'd have to wait until tomorrow! You know I'm not supposed to send you back into the building after hours!"

She tried, "Oh. I forgot."

"I don't think so. We've talked about this before."

Her mom was apologetic and embarrassed, but it was done. I'm guessing it won't happen again.

Today while we were on the playground, Esme called Drew gay.

He came to me to tell me about it. I told him I'd talk with her, told him to go play and called Esme over to me.

"Want to tell me what's going on with Drew?"

"Oh, I accidentally called him," and here she lowered her voice, embarrassed. "Gay,"
she whispered.

"Esme, calling someone names isn't an accident. It's a choice. You chose to call Drew a name. Why?"

She shrugged eloquently.

"It was an accident!"

"Oh I think you know better than that. And we don't call each other names, it's not nice. Let's remember to be kind here, okay?"

I did talk to her mom about it, calling someone 'gay' is one of those things we need to talk about with parents. Her mom wasn't happy about it either, and told Esme that she really doesn't like the poor excuse of 'accidentally'.
That she needs to take responsibility for her actions.

I'm hoping we don't have a repeat.

Some observations, she is becoming very aware of boys. She's a completely different person when Drew or Juan are in attendance. She's loud, obnoxious, very physical, smacking them, pushing them, pulling their chairs.

I have tried talking with her a little, I know she's not being willful, she's just... learning.

She always says she's sorry and five minutes later is at it again.

I don't know of anything that will fix that budding awareness, and there's NO way I will try to tell her she's wrong, but I want to make sure other adults are aware of what's going on with her.
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So I can't tell you what the counselor said, but she thanked me for the email and offered to loan me a book, too.

Esme is a sweet kid. I have high hopes for her, she's supported so well by her family and the people who work with her.
But she's another one that's a lot of extra work for me.