Sunday 11 November 2007

Parties!

I should have taken a photo, but for some reason I didn't! Anyway, yesterday Antonia went to a friend's birthday party all dressed up in a skirt with a net underskirt and bunches in her hair! She had already decided what she wanted to wear that morning!

As it was a 4 year old's party all the parents stayed, also there didn't seem to be a leaving time, so it dispersed naturally. This is very different from the UK where the party starts at a set time and then finishes at a set time! We were at this party for 4 hours! Luckily everyone got on really well and there were very few arguments between the children even when they started to get really tired around 7.30 p.m. - can you imagine a kids party still going at this time in the UK?!

The cake was lovely, it was a big chocolate covered tray cake with rice paper flowers on it and Nutella in the centre. Really yummy!

Everyone went home with bubble stuff and very tired! We arrived home about 8.00 p.m.! Not surprisingly Antonia woke up about 8.30 a.m., which I was relieved about. Hopefully we will see a few friends this afternoon, but it really depends on the cold, miserable weather! Yep, even Italy has bad weather, as people keep telling me!

Wednesday 7 November 2007

Bullying

Yep, just as I thought things were settling down, this reared its ugly head.

Unfortunately the child committing the acts is to some degree protected as he is an adoptee from the Ukraine with all sorts of problems. One of those being that his idea of social interaction is to bite, hit, punch and generally be a complete nasty so and so to the other children.

Complaints are being made by many parents as every child in this group seems to have suffered at this childs hands at some point since September.

For me though the last straw came yesterday. Last week I found him attacking my daughter in the school toilets. I chased him back to the classroom and an Italian parent helped explain what had happened. Since then there has been a meeting about this child, but with what effect I don't yet know. Yesterday he blocked our way going back into the classroom then, in front of me, punched my daughter in the chest! Again I took him back to the teachers and tried to explain what had happened. I also spoke to a classroom assistant that speaks English as I was leaving.
When I picked Antonia up that evening I was told this child had been "tranquillo" that day. It obviously hadn't been picked up that he had hit Antonia in the morning! Now they know! What will happen I don't know, but I don't see why my child should be victimised during the rehabilitation of another!!