No Dancing please......

In a move sure to delight his Bapa, J has decided that a future in dancing is not for him and yet it all started off so well a few weeks ago.

Last Monday I received a call from the school, it was the third week of lessons and the school were phoning to say that J did not want to join in the dancing and just wanted to go home. I collected J and asked him about the dancing,

"Why" I asked "don't you want to do the class anymore"? 

J just shrugged and mumbled something about "being too tired".

Further questions and discussions were ignored or answered with short replies  - he was "too tired" it was "silly" and "I don't want to do it any more".

Oh good - so glad I struggled to pay that £20 for the sessions...... not a huge amount I know but by the time I have paid £40 for school dinners and a further £18 in Breakfast club fees for the days I work and the £5 snack money due and the money for anything else they spring on me it doesn't leave much.

A little while later it occured to me that I had forgotten to give J a bottle of water for the class and I had a bit of a lightbulb moment. "J, did you want to come home because you didn't have a bottle of water". J looked at me and nodded. "So if you have a bottle of water you will want to go next week" I asked. J nodded again and so on Monday I made sure he had a bottle of water and arranged that he would be collected at 4pm after the dance class.

At 3.25pm my Mum phoned to say she had just had the school on the phone and "could we go and collect J as he didn't want to do the dancing and was being disruptive". The person added rather unneccessarily "and he didn't want to do it last week either". A shame I didn't get the call because I know he didn't want to do it last week either. I just thought that was because he had no water and this week he does have water and so I wanted to see if that made a difference - evidently it did not.

So - we tried and it's the first after school activity he has done so maybe I was expecting too much but I thought the sensory seeking bit of him would love the dance movement along with the other boys there but it has not been the case.

Now - do I shell out £35 for the football coaching after school on a Thursday which J also wants to attend? Or will that go the same way? Not that I can afford this yet anyway but by the summer term I will have it

J struggles to listen though and it will only take one sharp comment for him to feel silly and not want to go again. He did seem to be enjoying the dancing so I do wonder if someone has said something - a comment or a criticism to make him feel he can't do it. Either that or he takes after his Aunty M who as a child joined everything just long enough to get the uniform and then left!

The First Kiss......

Yesterday morning as I was helping J prepare for school he suddenly blurted out "Mummy, yesterday M kissed me and I don't know why". This was said in a mock aggressive tone as he blushed and looked away before adding "it was disgusting and I'm not going to let her do it again".
I asked J "did she kiss you on the face"? and J replied "she kissed me on the cheek and it was horrible".

J and M have a rather sweet little friendship with J enjoying someone who understands "Ben 10" and who is not adverse to some noisy and energetic playground games. M is a very sweet little girl who obviously likes J and who fought off allcomers for a seat next to J at his 7th birthday party. I have a wonderful photo of them both seated next to each other at the party. M has her arm possessively around J and her head rested on his shoulder with a sweet smile. J in the same photo has his eyes cast downwards with an embarassed grin. Immediately after the photo was taken J made a comedy fall from his chair and lay on the floor which he told me later was him "falling on the floor in love". To protect her identity I won't publish the photo of J and M here but it is lovely and rather sweet. Instead we have two different pictures coutesy of Google Image search.

Yesterday when I collected J from school I asked him if M had kissed him again and the answer was a very boyish "yuck - no way". So that's alright then - I suspect that in just a few more years his answer might be rather different but by then M will be a pretty young thing who will have outgrown Ben 10.  I am not sure the same will be true of J..............

5th Annual Poetry for Brigid Event

Feel free to copy the following to your blog/facebook/website and spread the word. Let poetry bless the blogosphere once again!

"New Kitten" by Shirley Hughes

WHAT: A Bloggers (Silent) Poetry Reading
WHEN: Anytime February 2, 2010
WHERE: Your blog
WHY: To celebrate the Feast of Brigid, aka Groundhog Day
HOW: Select a poem you like - by a favorite poet or one of your own - to post February 2nd.
RSVP: If you plan to publish, feel free to leave a comment and link on this post. Please pass this invitation on.


Being a Mum the poem I have chosen comes from a children's book by Shirley Hughes.
Deciding on a poem was difficult as J has lots of books with lots of poems but this one seems appropriate for the time of year as does the illustration above so I will read it with J later....

COMING SOON

"Spring is coming! With promising patches

of blue; and sunlight suddenly catches

A gleaming rooftop, where sparrows in batches

Flirt and flutter and pipe up snatches

Of hopeful song;

And windows are opened on stuffy rooms,

There's a shaking of mats and a flurry of brooms.

And it's lighter in the longer afternoons,

And boys on bikes whistle cheerful tunes.

It won't be long!"