Charlotte at School

People keep asking how Charlotte is doing at school.  We have been so lucky, she hasn't caught any colds, and has enjoyed it immensely.  She tells me every once in a while that she is asked, "Are you a boy or a girl?"   I look at her to see if she is hurt by the question and ask "How does that make you feel?  Does that bother you?", and she just smiles and says no.   I think she finds it secretly hilarious.  She told me that after one girl (who was 3rd or maybe 4th or maybe 6th grade) asked her that question at lunch yesterday, she told the boy she was sitting with that it was just the cancer that made her hair be short.   Charly says he told her that the other girl probably didn't understand, because not a lot of kids get cancer, just old people do.

Her classmates have been FaceTiming with her twice weekly since before Christmas, so they were familiar with how she looked before she came to school.  They also had a class discussion at the beginning of the year about the missing student who had cancer.  The teacher read a book about the Monkey in My Chair program, and they have been passing the monkey around for the various class activities.  When Charlotte's first day of school came a month ago, the class was so funny.  I arrived 10 minutes early, and Mrs. Smith began walking Charlotte through the morning routine - bag goes here, lunch goes here, go up to the front of the room and answer the question of the day.  Sit at your desk and start the writing assignment for the day.  Near the end of her run through, students started to come into the room.  Excited whispers began as one student noticed Charlotte and turned around to tell the child behind her, "Charlotte is here!"  Then I heard it spreading to outside the classroom in the hall.  "Charlotte is here!  Charlotte is here at school!"  

Everyone in her class, and to a lesser extent, the rest of the school knows who she is.  She tells me of kids that ask her to play with them at recess.  Of kids who want to do centers with her.  Charlotte tells me she is famous.  I'm so happy she is doing so well.  It was my hope that if she started this year, she would have an easier transition, having classmates who were aware of her situation.