Little Ryuji
...written on 06.23.03, @ 10:30 a.m.
Wed June 18, 2003
Little three year old Ryuji wasn't happy. "Yada, yada, yada!" he yelled to each of his mother's urgings to enter the classroom. Kyoka, his classmate was at home with a fever, and Ryuji, afraid to be in the class alone without his friend, was clinging tightly to his mother.
We've gone through this before. The mother leads her son in gently, and what child wouldn't be loathe to leave the warmth of mommy's lap, and the kid makes like a kudzu vine and won't let go of mommy's leg.
I offered that we could all do the SuperTots song together, but that everyone should be aware that when it was over, Mommy would leave. It wasn't a great idea because Mom held the little boy all through the song since he wouldn't get down, and she tossed him and swung him in the air and basically provided a delightful carnival ride for him, making it triple hard to get him to "uncling".
Every moment Mom stayed in the class, I cringed inside. I had everyone come to the Storytree and mom had Ryuji poised on her lap and I thought she was asking Tomo if it would be ok if she stayed. I had my head down and started to shake it. By the time I looked up, she was in the process of throwing her little boy into Tomo's arms and rushed out the door.
Ryuji started crying and making this strange coughing sound for the next twenty minutes or so. He was sweaty and overworked and I finally reached over and pulled him into me and he went to sleep. He slept for about twenty minutes and then we woke him up slowly and carefully reinitiated contact with him. He livened up considerably and was able to do the SuperTots song by himself at the end of class. Tomo wrote the Mom a big note about what we did in class and what she can expect next time. She later told us she saw the value in making the separation quick.
For the longest time I had two parents in my Saturday class with the same challenge, but through hardwork and persistence, we got the parents out and the children participating. I heard that the other branch teacher also has some parents in the classroom, so Saturday I shared some tips with her.
My eight Supertot song performances were very energetic and I beamed benevolently at the children non-stop because I felt so much power from Min's declaration the night before. We had a nice chat last night too. I so need to concentrate on the bounty within me rather than fear being inadequate. The universe is abundant.