Toddler Room Graduation

Momma Post: Ruby and her class graduated from the toddler room last Thursday. The parents organized a potluck to commemorate the passage and to thank Ruby's teachers Annie, Jeremy and former teacher Danielle. Annie surprised us by having taught the kids to sing "You Are My Sunshine", which was performed by the eleven children in Ruby's class. Ruby decided she felt more comfortable singing the song in Matt's lap instead of standing with her classmates. We're noticing a bit of a shy phase at times with Ruby. Ruby's teacher Annie became a little choked up when given the children their sign in photos for the last time. Annie was Ruby's primary teacher for approximately the last eighteen months. She wrote this account of Ruby as an introduction to the preschool teachers.

Ruby

Ruby is a very affectionate child who warms up quickly to cheerful adults quickly. She loves to be read to one-on-one. Although she seeks out one-on-one time with her caregivers often, she also enjoys socializing with her friends, and can sometimes spend up to twenty minutes on an independent activity if she isn't interrupted by a friend. When playing with peers she particularly enjoys running around and engaging in imaginary play. Ruby loves to play with dolls, dress up, look at books, do puzzles, draw, paint, cut, sort, sequence, and use manipulatives. She loves the color green and likes purple a lot, too! She likes circle time and group song and games. Ruby loves to see her younger sister Willa during the day. Ruby is a very sweet, affectionate, and proud older sister. She likes to help out around the classroom by doing chores such as washing tables and putting away mats. She follows a predictable daily rhythm with confidence and independence. She does best with changes when she is prepared for them in advance (in the past, surprise fire drills have been upsetting to her).

For the past year we have been working a lot with her on using words with friends rather than being physically agressive and she has made a lot of progress in the last few months. She now usually tries words first! She sometimes becomes offended and throws tantrums when her friends disagree with her or tell her to stop doing things. Example: 2/9/09 Ruby says to Lola, "You're the tiger." Lola says, "No, I'm going to play in the nook." Ruby says, "Lola, be the tiger." Lola says, "No" and starts to walk away. Ruby yells, "You're the tiger, right now!" Lola says, "No" and leaves the area. Ruby throws herself on the floor and cries. She typically wants space at the beginning of her tantrum and then seeks out hugs from a caregiver when she is ready. After the hug she sometimes (but not always) is willing to do some verbal processing about what happened. As she has become more and more able to regulate her emotions, these tantrums have become shorter and less frequent. Though it differs depending on the week, for the last couple months, she has not had tantrums every day and the tantrums have only been lasting around ten minutes or less.