Rowan had a day off school today. Much to our surprise, he was a little bummed out. You see, we have been battling with him each and every day, trying, pleading, begging him to be happy at school. We were getting nowhere. He's 4. He attends school 5 days a week for 3 hours every morning. Likes his teacher. Likes his classmates. Making progress. So, what's the problem? Well, he was having a tough time with his handwriting. Now, you may be wondering what in the world a 4 year old is doing with handwriting. I had to remind myself that many/most of the other children in his class will be attending all day kindergarten next year. John and I have decided to do 1/2 day kindergarten and then do all day kind. the next year at the public schools. At least that's what we're thinking. Anyway, the poor child had NEVER even known how to hold a pencil correctly, let alone draw straight lines and make letters with it. When I say he had little interest in drawing/writing/coloring, that would be an understatement. Whenever I would suggest such an activity over the summer, he would scoff and turn-up his nose. He complained that it took him FOREVER to finish his letters and that he just couldn't keep his pencil in the lines provided, etc. etc etc. and that he never got to play b/c it took him so long to complete his work. Yikes, he's 4 I say to myself. But I decided to give it awhile before I intervened. THEN one day his class had a pajama party. He was thrilled to go to school that day. He couldn't believe his ears when I told him the night before. He had to clarify and clarify and clarify that he would indeed wear his baseball pajamas to school AND play in them on the playground. Yes, it was true we told him. And THAT was all it took. Ever since that day, school's not so bad. Little to no complaining-practicing his letters at home-taking pride in writing his own name-drawing pictures that "he sees in his mind"-coloring in the lines "with small strokes mommy, not scribbles". What? Who is this? I attribute much of it to his wonderful teacher who had been teaching for somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 years...which is why I waited to intervene-and now I'm glad I did. She knows these kids and ways to get to them. God bless teachers!

So, back to today. Rowan had a day off. We went to the ZOO with his friend Evan and we had a great time!