Just a 46-year-old mom of 2 in Northern California. My kids are Monkey Monkey(MM) and Drama Llama (DL). I am married to Monkey Hubby (MH). Well, last night was great.
I think the school is insane. I am just overwhelmed from what they told us what the kids will be doing all year.
It's like, more is better. (Who says?). Why do Kindergarteners need 10 field trips? Why do they need 50 different cirriculums? I am trying to wrap my brain around it all.
On the flip side, teacher said most of the kids were already advanced, which is great for BM (so he is not bored).
She gave us sight words to work on the kids - I think about 20 lists. I laughed to myself when I saw them. I gave BM the page of the first 10 lists out of curiosity and he knew all but a very few words by sight. This will be tedious. (We have to sign off one list at a time. I guess I can ask the teacher to skip 1-10 - she can see for herself).
On one hand, they do tend to expect a lot from the kids. On the other hand, most of the parents said their kids weren't eating their lunch. (Not a problem with our HUNGRY boy). & they were theorizing the kids just didn't know how to feed themselves. LOL. I had to LAUGH at that as well - they need help "getting set up." So they are s'poosed to be learning all this stuff, but they can't feed themselves. Oy vey. It's just strange to me. (Since I had a newborn sister I remember making my own lunch in Kindergarten, on many occassions. Seriously. Kids will do what you expect of them). Another friend was telling me at her school there was a lot of potty accidents since the kids weren't reminded like they were in daycare or preschool, I guess. I try to remember the last time I reminded my 5-year-old to go potty. Like 2 years ago. I mean, I understand other kids train much later. But you see the overall tendency for people to baby their children. Their may be one or two late bloomers, but really how common should it be that kids are wetting their pants every day? ??? ???
Another interesting tidbit - they said kids coming through more and more have terrible fine motor skills. Not good at coloring/drawing/cutting/pasting.
Kind of interesting. I would wonder if our kids would have an edge because their preschool is so old-school. Instead of those hideous premade projects, they are encouraged to be creative and create their own art. I would assume that helps (it is more a traditional 1970s preschool. The modern preschools were frightening to me - no creativity if nothing else). BUT our kids also prefer TV, computers, video games to other forms of entertainment. So I could see easily my kids being on the low end for that. They don't spend a lot of time using their hands, for sure. We don't do a lot of coloring with them at home. That could be a part of it as well. I don't know, not much individual feedback yet.
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Anyway, we paid the neighbor $10 and the kids had a blast. She actually wouldn't accept it but I insisted as at least a token that we weren't taking advantage. I told her I was open to informally exchanging the kids any time - they had fun. But she made our life immensely easier for one night and I insisted she take it for that.
Neighbors are VERY nice and actually the wife went to the same high school as dh - funny enough. The father's parents live down the street from dh's parents as well, they are from San Jose. Just a small world. !!!!
But we get wrapped up in our own little lives and aren't very social. I think we are very different people, BUT we invited them over for the kids' birthday and I realized just how SWEET they are. Nice, nice, nice and the kids are our common ground, if nothing else. We need to get together more. She said her boy has few friends (since their daughter is so much older - is their main focus as far as friends). So we'll work on it - work on being social.
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So why did I title this post, "UGH!!!!!"
Because BM woke up with croup.
A little deja vu here. It was around February that he went to bed completely fine one night, and the next morning he woke up and could barely breathe. I ended up calling 9-1-1, was so panicked.
The diagnosis? Croup? They kept asking a lot of questions how long he had been sick. Hello, he went to bed healthy and waking up looking like he was DYING. OMG.
Today was a little better. I heard some hacking and thought one of the kids was throwing up. I followed the noise to BM's room and was devastated to hear that croup noise. IT just came on in a flash, like last time. I guess the good is maybe it will leave in a flash too (like last time).
Certainly NOT as bad as last time. *Phew* & I know not to panic this time. (I think; it's hard).
But last time they told us he was getting too old. & he had never really had it before (maybe once).
So the whole thing is very odd and has me worried.
I can just tell it is going to be a long week.
& then I am worried how TONIGHT will be. They say the second night is worse. Last time he was drugged up on steroids - I am not sure we see the point this round. But I will probably have a worrisome night if he is still sick tonight.
PLUS I have to go to work and leave dh carless today. Though croup does some to be worse at night. I just feel uncomfortable if he does struggle like last time.
*sigh*
So, just, Ugh!
Dh was going to get the van towed today while the kids were at school. Regardless, he is carless.
What a week!
UGH!!!!
September 10th, 2008 at 03:02 pm
September 10th, 2008 at 03:34 pm 1221060869
September 10th, 2008 at 03:42 pm 1221061364
And I also see a huge strangeness in kids not doing anything for themselves. I don't even make breakfast for the 2 year old (big sister helps him) I just don't see why kids are not asked more of.
September 10th, 2008 at 04:07 pm 1221062840
Dang!!! Who cares if they know all their sight words?! Research shows that most kids are really not ready to read at age 5-6, even if they CAN. They can read later! I'm telling you, I have older kids now, they have tons of homework... children should have the opportunity to enjoy being children. They will read when they're ready.
Good luck with all that!
And you might check on the allergy idea. The pollen counts for grasses are really high and my kids are suffering from that right now.
September 10th, 2008 at 08:16 pm 1221077771
I have to agree though Joan - the first thing I thought today is this is just WEIRD. BUT last time was clearly croup. It's kind of how BM is. He doesn't slow down until he is REALLY ill and he fights it off quick. (How he is with any illness). But we will keep an eye on him - it is kind of strange for croup. I have to agree I am questioning what the heck this is. If there is something more to it? I'll keep you updated.
Swimgirl - I mostly agree. But kids are different. My kid is going to be totally bored by the reading level. Early reading (like ages 2-3) runs in the family. I've heard an earful about the age 5-6 thing, but there is not much you can do when your child is intent to read at a young age - they learn whether you help them or not. Thus, I have no beef with the reading except it is too easy.
But yeah - I mostly agree. If the school is all day why not make it 50% play time. Instead they kind of cram everything they can possibly think of in. Egads. Like they don't have 5-6 years to do some of this stuff.
Education is HUGE to us because I feel like I was pushed too hard and my dh has never had a challenging class in his LIFE. So we try hard to strike that middle ground. We are very involved and keeping an eye on things. We stick with it so he gets a spot in THIS school, which seems a good fit, but otherwise I think I would put him in K elsewhere. For now, he is doing okay and I don't want to lose his spot. But I can't say we would never pull him out if we were unhappy. Kind of just seeing how it goes for now...
September 10th, 2008 at 08:18 pm 1221077923
I have to agree though Joan - the first thing I thought today is this is just WEIRD. BUT last time was clearly croup. It's kind of how BM is. He doesn't slow down until he is REALLY ill and he fights it off quick. (How he is with any illness). But we will keep an eye on him - it is kind of strange for croup. I have to agree I am questioning what the heck this is. If there is something more to it? I'll keep you updated.
Swimgirl - I mostly agree. But kids are different. My kid is going to be totally bored by the reading level. Early reading (like ages 2-3) runs in the family. I've heard an earful about the age 5-6 thing, but there is not much you can do when your child is intent to read at a young age - they learn whether you help them or not. Thus, I have no beef with the reading except it is too easy.
But yeah - I mostly agree. If the school is all day why not make it 50% play time. Instead they kind of cram everything they can possibly think of in. Egads. Like they don't have 5-6 years to do some of this stuff.
Education is HUGE to us because I feel like I was pushed too hard and my dh has never had a challenging class in his LIFE. So we try hard to strike that middle ground. We are very involved and keeping an eye on things. We stick with it so he gets a spot in THIS school, which seems a good fit, but otherwise I think I would put him in K elsewhere. For now, he is doing okay and I don't want to lose his spot. But I can't say we would never pull him out if we were unhappy. Kind of just seeing how it goes for now...
Given the choice he will be better off being pushed too hard, considering his personality. I think it is a travesty that dh was so bored his entire education. But I am there to kind of say - don't push him too hard - all the same.
September 10th, 2008 at 10:52 pm 1221087165
We did end up looking for another school at the request of my kid after fourth grade. Despite all the lip service to a thorough, challenging education, they never really did all that much except bore the kids, reinforce manners, and do a lot of crowd control. My son asked us to find a better school or to homeschool him. The principal found out we were looking for a different school and offered to work out some special arrangements to meet his needs, but they reneged. Suddenly one day, in the face of a broken promise and a child who wanted to learn, were were homeschooling.
I thought the kindergarten teacher was great, I thought the kids were great. But what they ended up doing was so disappointing for just about all of the kids, I think. Great expectations; big wad of sub-mediocre accomplishments. Such a waste.
September 12th, 2008 at 02:35 pm 1221230152