Reaching

The other day at the grocery store, I ran into Jonah’s preschool teacher, Ms. Chris.  For anyone who remembers Jonah at 5, this will be a trip down memory lane, as it was for me.  

Jonah’s arrival at All God’s Children Learning Center was abrupt.  It followed a disastrous couple of days in a kindergarten class into which his clueless parents had deposited him.  Barely five years old, Jonah was quite clearly not ready for kindergarten, a fact that any reasonable parent would have known, but which we, his parents, had yet to discover.  

This is the child whose lagging fine motor skills meant that he could not trace his letters, and, while he knew some of his letters, Jonah refused to “show” what he knew.  This is the sensitive boy who could not deal with noisy places or kids jostling him on the playground; the kid who did not manage transitions well, could not converse with adults, and whose response to frustration was to melt down, usually loudly. 

The school social worker and his kindergarten teacher very graciously led us to the realization that Jonah would be so much more ready for school if he waited another year.  As fate would have it, the preschool room at Toby’s new childcare center had an opening for Jonah, and Ms. Chris was ushered into his life.

Ms. Chris said she still remembers that terrified little boy, who stubbornly sat down criss-cross-applesauce and refused to interact.  She remembers lifting him, legs still crossed, and physically moving him to the other side of the room for the morning activity.  Jonah, she recalls, refused to do anything unless he was “absolutely confident that he could do it correctly". . . some things haven’t changed. . . 

Ms. Chris remembers having Jonah parked on her lap quite often that fall.  She became an ever-present part of his daily routine, gently encouraging him, working with him, and gradually drawing him out of his shell.   She was perceptive enough to realize that Jonah needed a “safe space” in which to plant himself and grow, and she provided the sunshine and warmth he needed to do just that.

“Is he still a reader?” Ms. Chris asked me.  She was his first reading teacher, and I will always remember the excited phone call Jonah made to me at work, one December morning, saying, “Mommy, I read my first book!” Little did she know at the time that Jonah’s lifelong love of books would be spurred by her making this moment such a celebratory event.

Ms. Chris is still teaching 4-6 year-olds at All God’s Children Learning Center. Kids like Jonah, she told me, are her favorite kids to work with:  “. . .these are the kids you have to reach for; not the ones clinging to your legs, clamoring for your attention.”

I am ever so grateful that Jonah had Ms. Chris, who not only reached for him, but met him where he was, carried him and nurtured that scared little boy six years ago!