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

Sounds good!

I'm very curious if the teacher has a reason -- for the pumpkins, I'm wondering if it's the tangle as an ongoing representation from Mo that is the problem. (From what you've said, I can't tell if Mo ever does simple representations of objects -- a person, a dog -- or if they're all tangles/ stormclouds/ fireblazes.)

My thing here has been not that the teacher HAS a good reason but that MAYBE she has a good reason -- so why not find out from her?

She may well not, of course. Then I hope you guys come to an understanding that helps Mo enjoy school more.

Mo drew a pumpkin vine with pumpkin fruit on it. Whats wrong with that? I bet the vine is what you have called a pumpkin all last year

I wonder if teacher thinks a pumpkin is a fruit or a vegetable. I wonder if she has ever seen a pumpkin vine

Could you ask Mo what colour kangaroos are?

Ha!

Dadpad, Mo came home from school the other day very put out that they said a tomato was a vegetable. "MOM! <humph, grumble> is a tomato a fruit or a vegetable?" he yells. "A fruit" says I - it has seeds", says I. "I though so!" says Mo.

And Mo says kangaroos are red. This is based on the tree kangaroos at our local zoo.

Kangaroos are red, they are also light grey, chrarcoal, brown, white and even light orange. Even the Red Kangaroo can be grey. The point is any description is based on personal experience. Mo needs to understand that, and to make room for other peoples interpretations and experiences. So does his teacher!

When and how to present your point of view is an important ongoing and vital lesson.

By the way Santa uses big white kangaroos (called Boomers) to pull his sleigh around Australia 'cos its too hot for reindeer here.

I wonder what teacher would say if he drew a picture of santas sleigh being pulled by 6 white kangaroos?

From my entirely selfish mad scientist point of view, it would be interesting to try the following experiment: Send Mo to school with evidence that tomatoes are indeed classified as fruits. A printout of this Encarta article should be good enough. Will the teacher be a fascist pig and pull rank on Mo, or will she recognize that the encyclopedia confirms his classification? (To be fair, Encarta's "tomato" article says tomatoes are both fruits and vegetables, confirming the point dadpad made in his last post.)

Your earlier point, "maybe [...] I can get her to cut Mo a little slack", doesn't quite sit right with me. In the examples you gave, I see no slack for the teacher to cut him. Mo did nothing wrong. The teacher needs to recognize that when children draw different pictures than she expects them to paint, and if theey do it in good faith, the problem may well with her expectations. It would be a different matter if Mo was trying to be difficult on purpose, but I'm not getting that sense from your description.

< A tomato is the fruit of the tomato plant, but can be used as a vegetable in cooking. >

A technique that we've found effective, and one that I've found very difficult to master, is a form of reflexive listening. I'll have to ask T what the name of the technique is, so I can Google it.

Basically, you reflect back their feelings while adding comments to help them sort out their feelings.

A sample conversation with Mo might go (and I'm using a lot of liberty here to demonstrate):

Mo: "I'm not going to school!"

Boomer: "It would be nice to stay at home and not go to school, wouldn't it?"

Mo: "Yeah!"

Boomer: "School is frustrating?"

Mo: "And boring!"

Boomer: "It's hard to have to take turns sometimes. Is that it?"

Mo: "Maybe."

Boomer: "What else bothers you about school?"

Mo: "The teacher!"

Boomer: "The teacher tells you what to do?"

Mo: "That's not it."

Boomer: "The teacher wants things just one way? That can be hard to please someone when they only want things their way."




....



Et cetera.

I've found it to be an extremely trying process, as you have to keep looking behind the words for why they feel the way they do. It does seriously reduce the battle of wills, however, because Yaya just wants to be heard lots of times.

Forgive me you already do this... it's something relatively new that we're using that's been very rewarding.

What are their names?

We did a similar technique with Monday morning stomach aches throughout the early elementary school years, DD. We would eventually work to the point where she had enough confidence in her day ahead that she would go out to the bus.

I think the conversation with the teacher is a great idea, Boomer. Maybe a picture or two of the garden might help as well.

I'm not sure if OR has implemented kindergarten standards, but here is a link to the ones used in IL. It might give you an idea of what they are looking for by the end of kindergarten and teaching to in order to accomplish these goals.

IL kindergarten standards

Tomatoe was legally declared a vegetable in the early 1900's (Check which country)

botanically
A fruit is the fully developed fruiting body of a plant with its contents and accessory parts, a fruit contains the plant ovaries (seed).
some fruit is not edible but the seed is (nuts) some fruit is not edible and neither are the seed but the accessory parts are (pomegranite)

Vegetable is any other part of a herbaciouse (non woody) plant that is edible (stem, tuber, leaf, flower)

Herb and Spice can be from a woody or non woody perennial.

Each kangaroo has the same name, (BOOM) (it saves santa time when he calls em)

There is a song

Early on one Christmas Day, a Joey Kanga-roo
Was far from home and lost in a great big zoo
Mummy, where's my mummy, they've taken her a-way
We'll help you find your mummy son, hop on the sleigh

[Verse:]
Up beside the bag of toys, little Joey hopped
But they had'nt gone far when Santa stopped
Un-harnessed all the reindeer and Joey wondered why
Then he heard a far off booming in the sky
([size=7]Boom[/size] boom boom boom boom BOOM)

[Chorus:]
Six white boomers, snow white boomers
Racing Santa Claus through the blazing sun
Six white boomers, snow white boomers
.. On his Aus-tra-lian run

Pretty soon old Santa began to feel the heat
Took his fur-lined boots off to cool his feet
Into one popped Joey, feeling quite OK
While those old man kangaroos kept pulling on the sleigh

Joey said to Santa, Santa, what about the toys
Aren't you giving some to these girls and boys
They've all got their presents son, we were here last night
This trip is an extra trip, Joey's special flight

Soon the sleigh was flashing past, right over Marble Bar
Slow down there, cried Santa, it can't be far
Come up on my lap son, and have a look around

There she is, that's mummy, bounding up and down

Well that's the bestest Christmas treat that Joey
ever had
Curled up in mother's pouch all snug and glad
The last they saw was Santa headed northward
from the sun
The only year the boomers worked a double run

[Chorus:]
Six white boomers, snow white boomers
Racing Santa Claus through the blazing sun
Six white boomers, snow white boomers
.. On his Aus-tra-lian run

erm........ what colour are you boomer?

Found a photo just now in the Chicago Tribune's photo collection that reminded me of this thread -


This is from the world's largest pumpking exhibition held at Ludwigsburg Castle in Germany..

Oh my.

How completely cool.

Thank you, osso!

I'm addicted the Chicago Tribune photo section... it's probably still on there.

You have to register for the Tribune and I avoided it myself for a couple of years since they are nosier than some other sites. But I gave in and registered, since I'm interested in a lot in the newspaper. No repercussions re ads or anything since.

Here's a link to the home page; look at Images in the News.