Can he paint a lush Tahitian chick and just be done with it?

Could you just talk to her and ask what this is about? It sure beats second-guessing.


Maybe because hole-digging is his routine whereas tree-coloring is their routine? When I was his age, this would have made all the difference to me.

Today was my volunteer day in class. It was very interesting in terms of this thread.

Today they read "The Very Hungry Catepillar" and the assignment was to draw a picture of something the catepilllar might eat it's way through.

Mo decided on pumpkins.


But no fat orange orbs for Mo. Oh no! His pumpkins were this messy tangle with fat greenish balls inside.

I heard him explaining to the teacher what it was a picture of and she suggested more tradional pumpkis. Mo insisted that this is what pumpkins looked like.

And do you know what? His drawing looked a whole lot like the pumpkins we have growing in our garden - a tangle of stems and leaves with fat young (green) pumpkins in them.

Mo even drew in the roots.

Okay. It was a mess. I admit. But have you ever seen a pumpkin growing? It's a messy plant.

It was not what the teacher expected to complete the assignment though.

Correct or incorrect on Mo's part?

I'd applaud the tangled pumpkin patch as being an excellent home-style piece of art.

Then I'd suggest since Mo was a bright kid with two hats and a big box of crayons that he draw a school-type pumpkin as well.

After all, there are many ways of looking at a pumpkin.

Don't see the kindergarten rules as repression--see them as expansion to a second point of view.

You might discuss Poster Art and the necessity of having unambigious, complete-without-footnotes art in this fast-moving world.

After all, a man who can both abstract and embellish is always going to be a survivor.

Yeah.

I think that sounds like a cool drawing.

What I was trying to get at in my last post is I just want to be sure that two things are separated. (I think they probably are.) One thing is private (or on A2K) harrumphing about how school is more regimented than what Mo is used to and what you would like, ideally. I have no problem with that, at all, and am happy to join in. (Sozlet loves school but there still seems to be NO recess. This irritates me. Hmph.)

The other thing is going beyond the private harrumphing and letting this take up too much mental space -- because when it's taking up a lot of mental space, it's gonna be conveyed to Mo. Period. Kids just pick up on these things.

I liked Thomas' comment, about just asking the teacher -- what do you think?

Correct. As you say, the assignment was to draw a picture of something the catepilllar might eat it's way through. Mo decided on pumpkins, and decided to paint them as they are, not as the teacher would have wanted them if he had commisioned a pumpkin picture. Mo did what he was assigned to do. It's not his fault the teacher changed the specs on him in mid-project.

I still like the idea of asking to get more info on why the teacher does what she does. Is it that she has no time? Is it about standards? Is it that she has been trying to get Mo to draw something representational as a precursor to writing and the tangle of vines was too similar to other non-representational tangles he's been doing in class?

Or is there no good reason for it at all..? In which case maybe you can talk to her about the possibility of letting this one thing go as a way to get Mo more engaged with school. Maybe she's doing it unthinkingly, and would welcome the tip.

were there specimen pumpkins in the book? I suspect that would have an impact on what the teacher was looking for. I know when I did some in-class work decades ago teachers were looking to see if the students could replicate something from the book - not what they knew from their garden at home.

I don't have a copy of that particular book and I'm not completely clear on what the bug eats in the book. Some of the things the kids drew were a boat, a pickle, flowers, an apricot (loved that one), and assorted fruits and berries.

When I'm in the class I try more to be generic helper lady instead of Mo's mom so I don't hover and I don't immediately jump to his defense. If I hadn't been in the class today I would have never known that there was a problem with his pumpkins.

I have a teacher's confrence coming up in a few days and I will use that opportunity to address these types of concerns. I don't really think my volunteer day is the right day to do it and the teacher doesn't really have time for side discussions during the day.

My deal with the pumpkins though is that Mo is right and the big orange orb drawers were wrong. We spend months cultivating pumpkins in the garden and the thing spends a few days on the porch at Halloween. To Mo a pumpkin is a tangled, spikey stemmed plant that hides little fruits that are green for longer than they are orange.

I don't expect the teacher to know the personal history and habits of every kid in the class but when a kid says "it's pumpkins - see the stems, see the roots" I guess I expect her to get it.

I really don't think I'm projecting a bunch of school angst onto Mo. The only real discussion type conversations we have about school is when he's laying in bed yelling that he doesn't want to go to school and I insist that he is going to school.

I think I'd like to hear from the teacher, too. If it were me, I'd ask her if there is a reason why she is wanting a certain depiction of a pumpkin (or an apple.) Maybe she has a very good pedagogical reason. I don't remember any pumpkins in the hungry caterpillar book, but it's been awhile.

That's great about the conference!

When I say "ask her about it," I don't mean right there in the middle of class, but email (how I have done almost all of my [pretty extensive!] communication with sozlet's preschool and now kindergarten teachers) or some sort of out-of-class opportunity to talk -- like conferences!

Huh.

Reading though this I'm beginning to wonder if being a city kid with a luxury yard that includes a garden might be hindering Mo a bit with all this coloring in of fruits and vegetables.

Most of the stuff we eat comes up out of the ground or off of a tree and we tend to grow unusual varieties - white pumpkins, purple carrots, little ball carrots. We were at Kathy's house (yes, that Kathy from the other thread) today and picked pears off of her tree. They weren't green - they were pale yellow (tan, really) and brown.

If I buy pears it is when Bosc pears are in season and they are brown. If I buy apples it's when Pacific Rose apples are in season and they are multi-colored.

I'm going to do a little experiment. I'm going to ask Mo to draw a pea. I'll bet you folding money he draws not a little green circle but a pod and vines. Same with corn. Tomatoes. Beans. Peppers.

Perhaps an excursion into the produce/canned food section of the supermarket is in order.

Boomer--

Good idea. When in doubt, take a field trip.

Will you be in the classroom every Wednesday?

Yes, I'm Wednesday's girl.

Field trips are always fun. The farmer's market would be great - we go there all the time but I think for this purpose, Safeway may be ideal.

Speaking up about not having a clue about all the rigidity on various sides--

Remember, I only finger painted in kindergarden myself, little artistic examples past that. Apples are sometimes red and sometimes they're not. I truly don't understand all the hazzerai.
They can be both red and not, and in-line or not.

Though I suppose I would fulminate if I ran into a pedantic kindergarden teacher.


Is there in fact some sort of Approved Way of Being for a person in kindergarden?

Instead of bringing Mo to the supermarket you should invite his teacher to see your garden.

No doubt, Green Witch!

I was going to buy some quick (canned) beans the other day until I read the ingredients: beans, high fructose corn syrup, blahblahblahblah chemical. I bought dried beans instead.

I really don't know if there is an appoved method of kindergartenerhood but that is a very good question.

Skipping subjects slightly, look at the plain old pinto beans in a can...

but never mind, as I'm all for fresh or dried beans..

I was looking at the "plain old" black, pinto, white and black beans and saw that there was a lot included other than beans.

I was talking to Mr. B about this tonight and we settled on a course of action. When I go in to the conferance I will take the teacher some fresh purple carrots and a photo of our white pumpkins, from last year:




Maybe with some nice AV tools I can get her to cut Mo a little slack.

Good idea.