Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Settling In.

So, not surprisingly I guess, things seem to have settled a bit on the school front. At least, I think it has. The shine of "I'm starting school!!!!" appears to have been more or less officially been replaced by the nagging feeling of drudgery that I recall from childhood. In fact it started last Thursday (Day 3) when I told Kieran to get dressed for school and he was incredulous: "I have to go to school AGAIN?". This week, he seems to be learning to accept his fate as student in perpetuity.

Although, he did finally bring home a "Welcome to JK" letter the other day, which told us his teacher's name, along with a few choice other things that would have been helpful to have known last week. You know..things like don't pack anything resembling a nut, or seafood, or apparently bananas, since a child in his class is allergic to them. I have never heard of a banana allergy...but none of the contraband items are Kieran staples anyway so that is fine.

We got called today to go get him because he was complaining of a "tummy ache". I am actually surprised we haven't received this call earlier because this kid has complained about stomach aches for as long as I can remember. He usually says it's because he "ate too much lunch" and sometimes dramatically rolls around a bit and then is totally fine. Still, he now has a Dr appointment for tomorrow just in case. I would hate to flippantly blog about his "faux" illness and then have it actually BE something legit. I'm even less thrilled that he has already figured out the trick to getting out of school early. Harumph.

On Friday, we have his "Junior Kindergarten Orientation" where, presumably,we will be able to ask questions about procedures, etc. It will come exactly a day too late for me to ask how I get my child excused from school for doctors appointments. Do we still send handwritten notes? Do I call the office? Do I show up and loiter outside his classroom until someone confronts me? (OK, probably not the last one) Argh. I hate being a newbie.

Thursday, September 9, 2010

School Days

Kieran started school this week. He has been excited ever since I took him to register last January and for months afterward asked me if he was starting school that day.

His school is one of the very first to offer full-day JK/SK...which I believe is both a blessing (yay! no daycare!) and a curse (uh oh...guinea pig).

However, although I'm happy he is going for a full day, I was mildly concerned a few weeks ago when I had not yet received any information from his school outlining a schedule for the First Day of School. I know that kindergarten entry is normally staggered so as not to to overwhelm any scared 4-year-olds (who may, in fact, even be only 3 if their birthdays are in the fall) but I hadn't heard any specifics yet.

So, last week, after I still had not heard anything and had no idea when he was supposed to go, I called to find out if I had missed something. The secretary (who is about 100 years old, I swear) returned my message and asked if I had not attended the info session. Uh oh. I attended an Open House back in early May where we saw the class rooms, met the teachers and had fruit and juice boxes, but that was it.

Yes, said the secretary that was the session where we got all the information.

"Okay," I said "but we didn't go over any staggered entry information or anything like that." Did we?

"There is no staggered entry for full day kindergarten. All children are to be here on September 7 at 9 am for all grades," Says Mildred, and I'm only assuming her name is as archaic as the sentence she just uttered.

"Really? You aren't staggering the entry?" I'm totally shocked.

"Well, we used to stagger them when they were half days, but with the Full Day Learning we aren't any more."

Jesus. AWESOME. Welcome to Backwardsville, kids, try not to be afraid.

So, can you guess what happened on the morning of September 7? Chaos, naturally.

We arrived, along with 40 anxious and excited JK/SK students, almost all with 2 parents, a surprising number of grandparents, dogs, strollers etc. all crowding around the gate to the fenced play area where they were taking the kids. It took almost 40 minutes before we were had reached the gate. When we got the gate, one of the teachers asked me who is teacher was. I snapped at her: "I have NO idea."

"You don't know?"

Now, I didn't want to be the bitchy parent on Kieran's first day, but how was I supposed to know this? Telepathy? Again, did I miss something, Mildred?

She checks her list..."he's not with me, so he must be with Mrs. Sportcheck." Or, at least, that's what it sounded like she said.

So, the other teacher comes over, Sportcheck apparently (who I did vaguely remember speaking to at the Open House...she was quite taken with Kaya). She is perfectly nice and personable and ushers Kieran through the gate and tells him to stand with the other kids in his class and he, finally, since he's been hopping at my feet for 20 minutes, excitedly scurries over.

At which point, since he's now far away from me on the other side of fence and soon to be heading inside the cinder block building, I start to bawl. I walk over to Eric and I'm sobbing not JUST because my little boy is growing up and starting school, but also because I'm not entirely happy with how this has all played out. I sort of can't believe I have just handed my sweet boy over to these people who I have barely ever talked to and who thought this way of starting things was a good idea. And they have him for 6 hours a day, 5 days a week. I suddenly felt like I didn't know anything about this place. I only know that his teacher's name sounds vaguely like a sporting goods store. And they don't know Kieran. No one had so much as asked me a single question about him beyond what I filled out at registration 8 months ago. I wanted to tell her that he was missing fingers on his left hand and that he was nervous about it. I wanted to tell her that he can write his name. I wanted to ask her to watch out for him because he's little and some of the other kids looked so big. But, with kids and parents (also annoyed) still crowding behind me, it wasn't the right environment.

Anyway, by the time, we left the school, I was more or less back to normal. We picked him up at 3:30 by flashing a special card with his name on it . We flashed the card to Mrs. Sportcheck and a few minutes later Kieran was standing in front of us.

"So, how was school?!"
He shows us two new bandaids on his knees and tells us that he fell in playground.

"What was your teachers' name?" I ask.
"I don't know"

"Did you meet any nice kids"
"Yeah."

"Like who?"
"I don't know. "

"Did you do anything fun"
"I don't know."

OK, so the school is still a bit of a mystery. I opened his backpack and there was, thankfully, a package with a long questionnaire about him that we were to fill out. Along with permission slips and other things requiring signatures. And next Friday, presumably after they have gone through the questionnaires, we go to a Kindergarten info session. Which if you ask me, is about three weeks too late - but at least they are having one.

He came home yesterday with a little booklet they had made on the first day of school. It had a little poem and talked about a special story they read about a raccoon (or maybe it was a beaver) starting school. The last page had a blank section where the children were supposed to draw a picture of their families. Kieran, totally NOT surprisingly, had drawn a truck.

Aaaaand, we're off.