At my school, we tend to call kids with whom we struggle "squirrely." Well. I've been struggling with one of my young squirrels for the last few days. Today, I kept him back in the hallway for a quick talking to. Honestly, I was so frustrated with him that I didn't know what I had to say at first. But with the little ones, it's so important to give them concrete things to work on, rather than vague demands to "be respectful," or "treat your classmates kindly." Especially with the kids who have a hard time doing those things in the first place. What does respect look like? What does kindness look like?

What is one concrete thing I want to ask of this child?

I want him to keep his hands close to his body and off of his neighbors when we are in line.

We talked about why this is important. We decided to give this behavior a go. I will remind him that we decided to this. I made a piece of paper where we will check off every day that he manages to do this for the next week. I'm imagining that we will have quick check-ins at the end of every day to assess whether he can honestly check off that day's box. Maybe it's unkind of me, but I don't really expect him to get every day checked off. That'll just give us something to work toward the next week, though.

I hope this gets through to him. He's a sweet kid, really. I think, if we can work on learning one sign of kindness and respect at a time, everyone else will be able to see that he's a sweetheart, too. Keep your fingers crossed for him. And for me.

In other news, I had my second belly dance class last night. Did you know that there are at least three basic types of hip circles? No, I don't mean the same thing in different directions. I mean altogether different body movements. Huh. Bodies. They can move.

Doing hip circles and shoulder shimmies in front of a full wall of mirrors is an interesting experience. There's something odd about it. I am pleased to say that I have very few body image issues, so it's not the quirks in my body that are bothering me. It's just such a sensual looking dance that it feels strange to be performing it for myself. It's definitely something that was meant to be shared.

I just had to balance out some teacher with some belly dance. It wouldn't do to have too wholesome of a post.