Parent-garten Roundup

Yesterday, I attended kindergarten roundup, where the parents and kids visit the school, meet the teachers, and learn what they need to do to be ready for fall. There was one moment that really affected me. After the principal welcomed all of us, she introduced the teachers one by one. If our kid had the same nametag as that teacher, he or she should go with the teacher to a classroom. Rachel was in the first group. She just jumped right up and made a beeline for the teacher without a glance back toward me. I noticed this was not at all uncommon. With one exception (there’s always one), these kids were ready to go. But I wasn’t so sure I was ready. It was another one of those moments that gave me a little more insight which lead to more understanding of my parents’ actions when I was a kid. You never really appreciate all your parents go through until you have your own kids and experience those feelings for yourself. Anyway, after the last of the kids had gone, and we parents were all sitting there with wistful, sad smiles on our faces, the principal says with compassion, “That was just a taste of what you’re going to feel that first day of kindergarten.” And then she went on to say that the Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) will have a coffee and cake get-together for parents after drop off on the first day. That kind of stuff makes me feel good about this school.

Other quick thoughts…

-- The art teacher made a big deal about the kids not wearing clothes on art days they’d be afraid to get messy. I was thinking to myself, “Um, Rachel won’t care what shirt she gets messy!” The art teacher also said they do 50 minutes of art per week adding that if she had her way, it’d be a lot more. That’s a good attitude for an art teacher to have.

-- I am thinking about getting involved with the PTO. I want to know what’s happening at school and working full time lessens my every day access. So I may do that. It’ll cut into theater time, of course, but well… you know, kids are important.

-- Notes home are categorized using the traffic light as a metaphor. Green notes are “Your child did this really wonderful thing.” Yellow notes are warnings. And a Red note means your kid hit someone or teased someone or some other horrible thing. After the principal explained this, a dad in the row ahead of me leaned over and whispered to his wife, “We’l be seeing a lot of red notes.” And he said it was a slight smile on his face, which I found to be very unnerving.

-- I found it interesting that the school counselor has become more proactive. In my day, you never saw the counselor unless things were really bad. Consequently, I never once went to that office in my 12 years of school. Apparently, this school counselor spends 15 minutes each week observing the class and will often schedule one on one with kids just to see how things are going.