to calm a child.

My para was back today. Hacking and sniffling and still getting over her weekend flu, but back, which immediately made my day better than yesterday.
They worked hard today. Everyone was busy either doing multiplication or studying dinosaurs or creating maps of continents, etc. etc. It was a good morning.

Though the counselor called and said T was needed downstairs; the cop was back for further questioning. When I told T she was needed in the office, she had a total meltdown. "I'm not going down there," she kept saying. "No, I'm not going down there." I said I'd go with her, but her whole body just collapsed on the floor and she was crying. I called the office back.

"She's traumitized enough. I'm not sending her down there; she's crying, she doesn't want to come and I"m not going to make her."

The principal called next. "What's the problem?"

I told her. "I'll come up," she said. And she did. And somehow she calmly took T with her. T came back twenty minutes later and seemed okay. Phew.

This afternoon when things get nuts near dismissal time my boy J who is nuts anyway was really going off the wall. He's diagnosed ADD, waiting for a new dosage of medication (which just sucks, by the way), and I said "you're sitting with me."
NOOO! NOO!! he protested.
"Yes." I sat on a chair and positioned him beneath me, his head facing out between my knees, my feet in front of him.
"NO!" He said.
"Just for a minute. I just want to give you some calm."
I put my hands on his head and mustered all the calm I could into my hands. I thought as calmly as I could, I thought about giving this boy calm, I kept my hands on his head, and he relaxed under them. I kept my hands on his head and I asked the gathering what song they wanted to sing. We sang "I love the mountains" and "Waltzing with Bears." I sang calmly, quietly, J still under me, my hands on his head. Between songs, I asked if he wanted to move and sit by himself or stay with me.
"I want to stay with you" he said.

He stayed with me until almost everyone was dismissed, clutching homework in their hands. He got his homework, put it in his bag, and then ran to the line.

Oh, well. It lasted a little while.