I Hate School

I gotta admit I am a little worried about Kelly. Sunday night, she said I don't want to go back to school tomorrow. Maybe a normal reaction after a leisurely 2 weeks off?? But my warning bells rang.
She had a Transport assignment sheet in her schoolbag for the holidays. We dutifully filled out different types of transport we had used. Legs, bikes, rollerblades, car, train, scooter. I asked her Monday morning if she needed to take it back to which she replied 'No'. Well it should have been a 'Yes'...as they worked on it in class and had to write down '6 facts' from the holidays.

All the kids had to give a talk and they had to sit in the teachers chair and the kids had to point out the 'facts'. Bloody hell, I can't remember school being so stressful, especially grade 1.
So I went through it with her Tuesday night, role playing and describing different activities we had done on the holidays and incorporating the transports into it. She was clearly nervous and stressed about it. It was surprising to me actually. She stomped off in a huff, started crying and wrote I Hate School on her paper.

I tried to reason with her and ask her if there was anything else troubling her. She had a small complaint about some playground politics and also that one of her teachers yells?? So I decided to write a letter to the teacher just to ask if there might be something else troubling her. Well I think the teacher handled the situation very poorly. She pulled Kelly aside, basically read out what I had written and put her on the spot, and asked whether anything was wrong. Like if she won't tell me or her father, there is no way a teacher is gonna get the information out of her.
I approached the teacher after school, on the quiet (incorrectly thinking that it was all done discreetly) to which the teacher replied, that there was nothing wrong and that Kelly said that she had been 'just tricking'.
I think not. But she was happier when I picked her up so maybe it was the stress of talking in front of her class and being unsure of stating 6 facts.

You never stop worrying about your kids I suppose. That wasn't in the Motherhood manual they passed out at the hospital. Actually come to think of it, the manual was full of blank pages, you just gotta make it up as you go along and just try your best. :D