This is Leanna ready to go to orientation. I thought she should dress up for the first time meeting her teacher. Can't hurt right? Tom made fun of the dress, but it's one I wore as a girl myself.
She was the only one dressed nice, lol. I don't care, she looked adorable. It turns out that her teacher is sick, and may not even be there for the first day, so we met the substitute. She gave a very short speach. Man, welcome to 2006-a new district policy prevents schools from giving the kids snacks. No bringing in birthday food either. I immediately thought of Jaime and that maybe it had to do with allergies. But no, because of district test scores not being high enough, they decided that things like snacks are taking time away from education. So the kindergartners have to go from say10:30-11 am, whenever they leave their house, about 5 hours or more to 3:00 without a snack. That's a long time for a kid that age. The teacher said, give them a really big lunch! She also suggested we complain to the school board.
We were also warned to be on time with picking up the children-or they will call children & youth services! As the teacher said, you don't want that! There are 28 kids in EACH morning and afternoon kindergarten! Wow! Less than half showed up for our orientation. Other than that it was boring stuff, they'll teach them letters and numbers and how to write their names. They need a bookbag big enough to hold a folder but not the kind with wheels because space is limmited for hanging them. (Which is ok Nanny Sue because I had bought another smaller bookbag-Princess!-because the one with wheels seemed too akward and heavy for her little body. We can save the bigger one for another year.)
All the other kids were quiet and almost invisible. Leanna was her usual self-little miss curiosity. She kept whispering questions to me. We did a full circle around the classroom twice afterwards so she could look at everything. I'm not sure if that's good-she's curious and eager to learn and observe her surroundings-or bad-she was the only one not just sitting there listening to the teacher! I choose to remain guardly optimistic!
5 comments:
That's a shame about the snacks...I would be more willing to accept it if it were due to the increased frequency of food allergies...but it doesn't sound like that has anything to do with it. Northampton actually went to all day kindergarten several years ago...believe it or not, it is actually very popular with the parents.
I volunteer at my kids' old elementary school each Thursday morning. I have been helping a 4th grade teacher for the last 11 years. She has a tough time when she has more than 22-23 students, especially when some of them have learning disabilities. I can't even imagine having 28 kindergarteners in one class
What a little princess.... I like the outfit. Don't think she will look like that when she comes home from school. The kids get pretty ratty looking at the end of the day. It is amazing how messy they look when they come home. They look so nice and neat when the go in.
LOL-you've seen Leanna before, she's lucky to get out the door looking like that! Usually by the time we get to the carseat half her hair's out of the ponytail (or braid or whatever)!
haven't they done studies that show kids learn better if they have a full tummy??? it would be very distrating to be hungry and trying to learn! that does not seem like the solution to me...smaller classes yes, but not removing snacks!
i would love all day kindergarten...that eliminates the need for afternoon/morning daycare...i'm really starting to love northampton :-)
See, I understand wanting all day kindergarten for daycare. It works out well in that situation. For me though, I'm happy that she starts out with only a few hours. It's a nice introduction to school. Since she's not been to preschool or daycare-this will be her first experience in that type of environment. So for her it's nice that she gets to go into it slowly. And it's nice because I feel that she's ready for it. Not that she wouldn't have adapted if we had to put her in preschool or daycare earlier, but it's just nice that we were able to wait until she was ready on her own.
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