an observer in crowds

We started visiting the kindergarten again last week, after about a two month break (summer vacation and us not sure if we were welcome back for regular visits again after giving up her spot). They're totally cool with us picking up where we left off - stopping by in the afternoons for an hour or so a couple times a week, which is great. It is also great that the eight biggest kids from last semester have graduated to elementary school, as there were quite a few boys that brought a bit too much energy for Leona. There are still 25 kids, but with quite a few new littlest ones, the whole dynamics has changed a bit, though it is still full-throttle. The progress towards starting to feel a bit at ease that Leona had develop towards the end before summer vacation has completely disappeared.

Yesterday, on our way home, we met someone along the way and chatted a bit (it's about 1 km or so from kindy/elementary school and our house and it is not every time we meet someone ... small village it is). I mentioned we had stopped by the kindy to visit and play, and he asked Leona if she enjoyed herself there. She shook her head no, and he said oh, maybe there are a bit too many kids, it takes time to get comfortable, and she didn't really answer. I thought her initial no was more of a 'no I don't want to talk to you' no, but that evening when we were talking about our day and what we were going to do 'tomorrow', she said she didn't want to go to the kindergarten. Her reasons were that she didn't like that the kids said hi to her, and that there were so many kids there. Tonight she said the same thing when I mentioned we could go to the kindy tomorrow. I asked if she didn't want to play with x, y or z, and she said no. I think she just again was overwhelmed by it all.

However, she did mention three kids she does like to play with - two are the two youngest boys of a family with six kids from Eritrea who we visit sometimes (play on their big trampoline, especially). One is 5 and the other is in third grade, and it is the third grader who is especially great with Leona. The third is a girl who is also in third grade who has come with her younger sister a few times and visited us, and who comes and sits with us during recess when we are at the school's playground.

So that is good - these two families live right at the end of our road, where there's also a sandbox and a slide that we visit sometimes. They are relationships that can easily be developed (rather than the girls who are Leona's age who live close to the kindy...not that it is far from here, but it is harder to just 'drop by').

[Simplicity - and a love of climbing...I mean, why walk on a road when you can climb rocks??]

She mentioned that she is sometimes scared of one of our neighbors who she's been comfortable with before, so I have also decided to make more of a concerted effort to do really short visit with them more often - they're the ones with a cat too, so maybe we can work on her fear (come to think of it, she's not super scared of this cat, so it is more a phobia of unfamiliar animals than all animals).



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