Being in second grade, Shoshanna will tell you, is HARD. You are expected to sit in your chair and listen to the teacher. You are not allowed to do whatever you want, whenever you want, EVEN if what you want to do is sit in the corner and read a book. On top of that, your teacher asks you to keep your desk tidy and not to leave piles of crayon-paper-peelings on the floor.

And so she vacillates between adoring Mrs. R (“I love Mrs. R. She’s tough but she’s very nice.”) and really disliking her (“Mrs. R is SO MEAN! She made me pick up the crayon papers and tidy my desk!) On top of that, she has taken to howling as if we were torturing her whenever she’s asked to do something she doesn’t want to do, sometimes with bonus flinging-oneself-on-the-floor.

We remind her every time to take deep breaths to calm herself down, and that we don’t really understand what’s wrong if all she does is scream incoherently at us. Sometimes it even works.