Kindergarten DAY 4 (picky eater & scissors 101)

Wednesday August 26 2010

Not too bad of a day. Aidan was reluctant to wake up this morning but after Skylar jumps on him for about 10 minutes, he figures he should just give in. Refuses to eat anything for breakfast but lunch is at 10:30 so maybe he will actually eat everything I have packed.

Since Aidan is quite the picky eater his lunch consists of plain Nacho Cheese Doritos (his fav) Tyson Dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets that I pre-cook every morning and put into a zip lock bag, a chocolate pudding and a fruit punch juice box. This is my picky eater. French Fries and Chicken. I have spoken with other moms who say their children are also picky eaters but when they say their child does eat veggies or some fruit that isn't an apple or banana, I sort of quit listening. Uh huh your kid is picky but he/she eats fruits & veggies. No Aidan likes literally a hand full of things. Now our policy is to make him try everything. He has to eat at least 1 thing new everyday unless it's taco night :) he refuses. I'm grateful because he doesn't eat sweets then either but something has got to give. I did finally get him to eat pizza. Plain cheese pizza that by the time I'm done cutting it so he can "choke" it down there isn't any cheese left anyways. He will only eat 1 slice. *slaps forehead* What child doesn't like pizza? I did have to bribe him with Pepsi. Usually the only soda I allow him to have is sprite when we get Burger King but with pizza I started to bribe him with Pepsi. He could have a sip after he took one bite, and so on and so on. It since has worked, and I no longer have to bribe him. He loves green granny smith apples, thankfully but that is the ONLY fruit he will eat. No veggies, I've tried corn & carrots to be simple, no luck. He psyches himself out and starts gagging before I can get the piece of tiny yellow corn to his mouth. Now I know how my parents must have felt. He has inherited this picky eating from me, however I am a lot better now as an adult. What child cannot eat corn? Or a carrot?

Last week I was eating a romaine salad and he was interested. I let him rifle through my salad and as he is pushing everything yummy aside, he decides to try the romaine. He makes me wash off a few pieces of romaine because it has little dots of things stuck to it that look gross to him (that is called Italian dressing). So he takes the tiniest bite I have ever seen someone take of a piece of lettuce and he says to me "mmmm yummy, mom I like it" *sigh* Really? Is it the romaine you like or all of that air you just swallowed? He continues to spend at least the next 30 minutes eating 4-5 tiny pieces of lettuce that has been washed of all yummy-ness but I am grateful, it is a start. By the way Romaine has a cold wet crunchy non flavor. Lettuce/romaine should be the absolute easiest thing for any child to try because it is virtually flavorless, which leads me to believe you can not trust anything a 5 year old tells you.

For snack yesterday afternoon at school, Aidan's teacher gave them pretzels. I love pretzels. They are my midnight snack of choice. I have tried countless times to get Aidan to try one with no success of course. Yesterday Aidan comes home from school and informs me that he has eaten pretzels and he likes them. You Lie. I said well I have some right here (thin pretzel sticks) why don't you show me you like them. He eats a small bowl of them. Wow. It's amazing that 3 days in school has gotten Aidan to like pretzels and I have been trying for over a year. I'm happy. Maybe watching all of the other children eat their "strange" lunches will make him want to try more foods. Monkey See Monkey Do.


Scissors 101


A Quick note: Aidan's teacher sent home a little note attached to a few pieces of badly sliced strips of paper "Aidan needs help using scissors" I'm hoping there wasn't a tone in that little note, because as a mother to a newbie Kindergartner it is going to be really hard not to get defensive of her baby. My sister was here and told me I was being silly. So I got out a pair of children's plastic scissors and made a few straight lines on some paper and let Aidan go to town. I'm watching him and it never occurred to me to teach him how to use scissors. *mental head slap* This should have been in the "prepping your child for school" manual. Of course he's cutting his fingers and holding everything all wrong. His cuts are jagged but pretty must on course. We will try again over the weekend. I try to pick up his scissors and show him how to do it when I realize, I can't do it. It is these tiny cheap plastic scissors. I give him a pair of my small orange handled scissors and he does remarkably well. Too bad he can't use these in school. Although I kept trying to tell him to watch his fingers where he was holding the paper, he did ok. I'm wondering how perfect of a line the teacher wants from him?

I see that a bright yellow flyer has come home to "teach" the proper use of scissors :) It is brought to you by "Fiskars" the official spokes scissor for classrooms. I find it funny that the flyer does say "choosing a good pair of scissors" Select a pair of scissors that... 1) Is made with a durable pivot point and corrosion-resistant blades. The angle of the grind on the cutting edges should be five percent or less. Great, Now I need to go to Home Depot to buy scissors for him as well as these elusive plastic folders

So as a quick reminder...If your child has never used scissors before, now is a good time to teach him or her. I always just cut whatever he needed and handed it to him, but with the 25 glue sticks that were on his school supplies list, there is bound to be ALOT of cutting in school with scissors.