Bully-free Schooling

One night in April, lying in bed for stories, Keira let me know she no longer wanted to go to school.  She was very upset, and for the first time, told me how she had been bullied at school by three girls.  She also wanted to let her dad know.  So we called him to her room, and she told her "Protector," too.

The next day, I drove Keira to the school (Doug was out of town), ready to talk to the principal about what Keira had told me, and the gates were locked.

Gotta love a school that communicates in a different language OR doesn't communicate at all.

I had never received a note or anything.

I texted one lady who knows a little English, and she said, "I'm sorry.  My mother is sick, and I forgot to tell you." 

It gave Doug and I another day to pray about what we were going to say.

The next day, I asked my friend to come with Doug and me in the morning to Keira's school.  It was good timing to wait another day so Doug could go with me.  We also decided it would be better to have a translator to make sure we were being understood and we were understanding.

It turned out to be a good, healthy experience.  They thought we were coming in to complain about not knowing school was closed, and the principal was immediately very apologetic, but after understanding why we were there, they were also very serious.

They ended up calling the three girls in individually throughout the day and talking to them, and even though I feared backlash for Keira, the opposite happened.  Those girls ended up going out of their way to love on Keira and treat her with kindness.

Now that school is over, I can say happily that Keira finished the school year bully-free. 

Funny enough, the first week we talked to the school, Keira would get in the car in the afternoons and say, "Day one.  No bullies."  Then, "Day two.  No bullies," etc.

I am SO glad Keira told us, and I'm so glad we could step in and help, and I'm thankful for an administration that took measures to watch out for the well-being of my child.

There are a lot of things about this school I don't understand and I never will (wait until I tell you about graduation), but I am thankful for this experience.

Spring Cleaning

Spring break also meant spring cleaning for us.  

Not that the dust storms are done blowing in, but we decided to be hopeful.

Doug bought a pressure washer, and it has turned out to be very useful.

We took advantage of a free, sunny day to clean the roof.

Pressure sprayer art.

Later that evening, we had my friend and her daughter over for hamburgers, and then we had coffee and hot chocolate around a fire pit on the roof.  It was so nice, and my friend really liked it.  Being relaxed like that, leads to interesting and unguarded conversations.

Holiday: Empty streets; Lost in the Park

During a recent Spring holiday that lasted one week, many people took the opportunity to leave the city and go to the mountains to participate in their national past time:  picnicking.

It was a city-dwellers dream.

If you got to go to the mountains and enjoy the cool area and greenery.  Awesome.

If you had to stay in the city for certain activities still going on but not endure traffic.  Awesome.

No car in sight meant Kylie got a lot of driving practice in.  She's going to start driving more and more, and starting with the benefit of no other drivers was a huge plus.

One day during the break, Keira and I decided to go to the park and ride the train.  We walked for at least 3/4 mile, and we could never catch the train (it's hard to know where it stops and where you can get on).  Apparently, we'd gotten there right after they started their last run for the day.

However, in the meantime, we discovered a new playground which we had never seen before.  Of course, this is not hard to do.  This park is huge.

Used with permission from Google Earth

Honestly, there are so many hidden nooks and crannies in this place, you could discover something every day if you spent a lot of time there.

At the new playground, we ran into a girl from Keira's school.  Her mom and dad were there, so while Keira played with her friend, I spoke as best I could with her parents.  They were very nice, and they talked slow enough so that I could understand most of what they were saying.

When we realized we were never going to catch the train, we decided to find our way back to our car.  

All I knew to do was head for skyscrapers in the distance near the place where I remembered parking.

The good news:  We found ANOTHER fun playground on the way back to the car.

The bad news:  It took us an hour to find our way out of the park.  

I didn't tell Keira how nervous I was getting, but I was completely lost on all of the paths, and I was having trouble finding our parking area.  I don't know if people have ever felt like that in Central Park in NYC, but I also wondered how many people had to spend the night in this park because they couldn't find their way out in the dark.

Maybe it's just my over-active imagination.

Keira was very excited when we made it to the front of the park, and we took celebratory pictures in front of the fountains.