Tonight was the Spring Program at LGL where I teach (and Kyle attends sporadically these days). About 2 weeks ago, I decided that my class would sing "Wheels on the Bus" and "Twinkle, Twinkle" since I knew that Kyle knew both of those and that the rest of the boys could do the motions. However, last Wednesday the plans changed and the song changed once I showed my boss Kyle's performance from his other Spring Program. Big mistake! The new song that we were supposed to do was "I am Growing" which was very similar to "I'm a Flower Growing Tall", so every time I would try to sing it with Kyle he would get angry and say, "No!" and then start singing the flower song. Besides that little issue, my cd player wasn't working in my classroom so the two boys who were there last week did not get a chance to practice the new song. Add to that the fact that they are two years old and standing in front of an audience of adults. It was mayhem. We went up to the front at the beginning of the program and the three boys sat nicely during the first group songs while Kyle danced around, tried to sit on a plant, poked at little girls in the other class and climbed all over the communion rail. Oh and he pulled a big white bow out of the plant and threw it at the audience. So then it is our turn to sing and I was told that we should stand behind everyone on the top row so that they can see my class. So we start moving that way and one of the little guys freaks out and runs to his dad. One down. We got the other three up on stage and Derek started the song playing. Two of the boys just stood there like deer in the headlights. Forget anything about motions to the song -- all they had to do was crouch down and stand up over and over again. No, they just stood there and looked at the crowd. Kyle on the other hand takes this opportunity to do just about anything he can besides sing the song. He's running all over the stage, hitting kids on the tops of their heads, yelling at me. All the while, I am making a complete fool of myself trying to do the motions to this song. My friend Allison told me I made a good tree and that if nothing else, Kyle was very entertaining. Thanks! Several times during the song playing over and over and over again I looked at Derek and made a motion to cut the song. He just looked at me like he had no idea what I was trying to say which I guess he didn't, but eventually it did end. Kyle was no longer on the stage at that point, so two down. Luckily we had decided to go ahead and send the boys back to their parents after we were done. I think the parents appreciated that because two of them left right after our performance. Derek had to take Kyle back to the classroom since he was all wound up. The worst part about it for me is that when I get stressed I start to sweat. I would not be surprised if there was sweat dripping down my face during that entire performance. What a disaster. On the up side, I made a 10-minute powerpoint presentation of the kids set to music and I received many compliments on that. I'm sure people were thinking that I spent all my time on that instead of on practicing the song! Which technically I did.
Kyle in all his glory (the plant behind him used to have a white bow!)
In other news, Katie is starting to read. She is so proud of herself. Tonight she read "Biscuit" about a puppy who is going to bed. She read 24 pages with minimal help from me. Sometimes I have to keep her on track and remind her to look at the words instead of the pictures, but once she does she can sound out the words. Last week she also read 8 sight word books that I bought her. I'm so excited that it's starting to click. Earlier this year she made a "prayer pillowcase" at school and on it she asked God to help her learn how to read. So I know that it's been on her mind for several months. I am so proud of her.
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