consequences

[Claire70]

I was helping out in Dc's school today by listening to a few of the year 1 children read.
One little girl had a story that involved an adult going on a jolly (to space), but he wouldn't sit still so the astronaut in charge told him that if he wouldn't behave himself then the trip would be cut short. I can't remember the exact phrase but it was one of the standard ones that most of us will have used with our own children at some time.
The girl asked me what it meant, so I explained. Then she said "I don't understand", so I compared it to when she does something with her siblings and a parent but one of the children is misbehaving so the treat gets stopped. She still didn't understand, so I re-phrased it again. Finally I asked what happened at home when she wouldn't behave and she looked really puzzled and said "nothing".

Was I being had, do you think, or is this normal and I am just old and out of touch?

She probably just didn't understand your question.

I expect she was telling the truth. Either she never gets told off or she never misbehaves. A Year 1 age child can understand that kind of situation quite well and I'm sure if you'd asked...'what would your teacher do if you don't behave?' you'd have got a different answer.

maybe but my son is in that class had so I do regularly talk to children that age and I don't usually have a problem making myself understood.

There are three things to add...

1. the girl does like to distract whoever is helping her to read, more I'd say than any other child in the class, so its a possibility that she'd just found a good way of really throwing me

1. she is very hard work whenever I am trying to supervise something else, like a school trip because she doesn't seem to recognise that an adult telling the group to do something is not a casual request which she may or may not choose to consider

1. I am not judging her parents and I actually like this child (as I do all the children in that class)