What do you think?

Yesterday Little Froggy had a substitute at school. Her teacher let me know in advance so it wasn't a shock, but when she told me that this lady had ten years of experience in this class (I'm assuming she meant ESE classes) I figured Froggy would be fine and have a good day at school.

Now I'm not sure what to think.

When she got home there was a note from the substitute in her Agenda. It was almost like it was two separate notes, the way it was written. The error on the second line was hers, not mine.

"Little Froggy went on the potty twice today.
Little Froggy runs off from adult.
We practiced standing in line and staying together."

What???

After checking with my parents and her usual teacher I've established that no, my child isn't a runner or an escape artist with ANY of her caregivers. This doesn't seem to be an emerging problem or an issue of this-isn't-my-mom-so-I-don't-have-to-listen. Honestly, I think it was an overreaction on the part of the sub to something everyone else has learned to ignore out of my kid.

Her teacher told me that on Wednesday Froggy and one of her friends ran ahead of the teacher and the rest of the class on their way back to the room. The door was too heavy to open and the girls were in plain sight, in no danger, so the teacher just told them to wait for everyone else. The girls obeyed and soon everyone was together again. No punishment was needed as no offense was really made. Learning to stand in line is something they learn with time and doesn't come automatically to any child, "special" or not. Her teacher knows this and, being the fount of infinite patience that she is, went on with the day like it was no big deal.

My daughter is also the type that is strongly resistant to people who hover or micromanage. If she's coloring and you stand over her watching, she'll put it down and walk off to do something else. If she's playing with her Squinkies and you tell her to pick up her blocks before taking out any other toys, she ignores you until she's done. If you persist, she'll run to her room crying. If you know how to manage her you can get her to obey but you have to do it carefully, act almost like you don't even care. The best thing to do with her is to tell her to do something and then leave it alone for a while. Most of the time she'll do it while you're ignoring her. Nit-pick at the things she does (or doesn't do) and she turns into a banshee. She's honestly the best behaved when she has the least interference.

What I think happened is either she ran to the door like she did Wednesday and the sub freaked out, or Froggy didn't jump when the sub told them to do something, rebelled in true Froggy fashion, and instead of just ignoring her and moving on with the rest of the class the sub decided to make a mountain out of a molehill.

I'm kind of annoyed about the whole situation because A) the sub felt absolutely no need to elaborate, and B) we're talking about preschoolers, here. It's not like they've been in school for years and know the rules and decided to riot anyway. And it's not like one child stepping out of line is going to throw the whole world into anarchy.

Froggy was well behaved at home with us yesterday so I really have no reason to believe she was being bad or having an off day. I think she didn't know the sub, and the sub didn't know her, and they clashed.

What do you think? Have you had this problem before? How do your kids handle having a different teacher for the day?