Preparing for school

This post is by Kodi's Mom of Kodimeow Kronicles

Last week of September and still only a handful of posts for theme of the month?! Come on guys, if you don't remember your first day of school surely you remember you kids'?
I remember my kid's first day with crystal clarity...as if it was only the day before.

Ahem. It really was the day before yesterday. My son is a week away from 2, and we started his daycare/school/pre-school/whatever-you-want-to-call-it this week. And this is one of the worst weeks of my life. The only consolation is after the initial tears have been wiped away, he ends up having a whole lot of fun. I thought I'd share my experience of what I did to help with the transition.
(Please don't take this as tips or advice - for I haven't seen results of any of this working so far. As of today he cries, even as we are getting ready for school.)

Kodi is a shy kid. In group settings, he prefers to cling to me and observe for a long time, before participating. He does not like crowds, and does a whole lot better in one-on-one interactions. With familiar faces, he is somewhat at ease.

Keeping that in mind, I thought making the environment familiar to him would help him majorly.

1. Even before we had picked on the school, we took him on a tour. There were different family members we wanted to show the school to, and each time we went, we took Kodi along. One of those times, the class was doing water play outside, and they welcomed him to join. He was thrilled and had no problems stepping in and playing. (yes, yes, only because we were right there in his sight!)

2. When we did finalize on the school, there were forms to be picked up and dropped off, and each time, I made the extra drive home to pick him up and take him with me. I took him to his classroom and he'd look longingly at the toys there and itched to go play.

3. A week or so before the start date, I took him to meet with his teacher. One hello from her and he turned the other way! But at least she was no longer a stranger. At that time, the classroom was empty and with permission, he went in and played to his heart content. Well not quite, I picked him up just as he was having fun, so he would want to come back.

4. Later that week, we made use of the free observation sessions that the school offers. Typically parents pick this option before they select the school - so they can come in with their kid, stay for an hour and observe the classroom. We choose to do it as close to his start date as was possible, on two consecutive days and timed it to coincide with outdoor play time. Both sessions went well and we left on a positive note, with Kodi refusing to come back home with me.

5. During the observation sessions, the teachers talked to me in detail and asked several questions about Kodi to get to know him better. It was good to know that they took the effort. A lot of my initial doubts were cleared, and whether it helped Kodi or not, it helped me big time!

6. At my request and after the first day's progress, we hashed out a plan to let him go only for 2 hours the first week. Based on how this week goes, we plan to increase it to one hour at a time...include lunch one day, include naptime the next and so on till he's fairly comfortable going the whole day. As of now, he is there for a little over two hours, does not eat any meals there, except for a snack, and does not stay for naptime.

7. Beyond this, school featured regularly in all the stories we told him. And we tried to paint a very luring picture.

8. I am sure reading appropriate books would have helped too - but we didn't try that - he is in a I-don't-care-for-books phase.

Added: Can't believe I forgot to add these!
9. Based on the strong recommendation from Tharini, we started homeopathy for Kodi. Just to give a boost to his immunity to fight those ball of germs that will come at him!

10. We also requested his grandma to come for a visit, since having her at home for at least a month would make it possible for him to go only a few hours a day.

11. And last, but most importantly, I blogged! Post after post about school - and the support, cheers and comfort I got from moms (and non-moms!) from everywhere was so touching. I think this was more to prep me than Kodi :D

So that's it! We don't know how long the crying period will last - or if any of this helps him at all - but I had to do whatever was within my bounds. And yes, I know it is a matter of time before I come back here to whine that he's picked school over me :)

Now over to you - either in comments or in separate posts, what did you do to prep your kid (and yourself!) for first day?

First Parents Night and some Art for School

A couple of days ago I went for my first Parents Night at little S’s daycare/pre-school. This was the first time I was going for such a thing. I had been to a Parents-Teachers meet before but that was more like a one-on-one.
This I had no idea about and D was not in town, so I went alone and was thus heavily influenced by solely my own views.

Apparently it was an introductory sort of an evening where the teacher discussed her intention and goals in life and also in her classroom. She gave us printed sheets, materials and even made us do hand on stuff like painting apples and cutting them up and discussing them !!!

Now before I go on my rant, let me tell you I am the kind of person who is not very comfortable with “change”. So I was very upset with this whole transition thing where S was moving on from her pre-school class to pre-K class. I was getting comfortable with her teachers when this announcement came and I was really sad that S had to move on from Ms. A’s class. I even wanted to cry on her last day…yes I am weird.

Now again S is not really supposed to go to a Pre-K class because she is a December born and all schools here have a September or October cut off so she cannot make it to Kindergarten next year. However her teacher(Ms. A) and me both thought that it is better if she moves on to Pre-K than Pre-School2 (an intermediate) class because there is more stuff done in Pre-K and she can benefit from that. That being the case she is the youngest in this class.

The teacher for her Pre-K is a young woman(Ms. K) just done with undergrad in Child Ed and as a result very enthu to put all her theoretical knowledge to work. In fact, too enthu I felt. In her discussion she kept stressing “how she will get the kids ready for Kindergarten” by next year and blah, blah, blah….At a point I told her that a kindergarten in a public school does not really expect a lot from the kids but she insisted that it did.

The thing I disliked is she went on to say that she will start giving out homework to these kids starting November. “Homework” at this age ??? But why ? Most of these kids spend at least 8 hours with her (this being a daycare) and I thing that is ample time for her to “get them ready for kindergarten”. Why give them homework ? I do make S practice her name etc. at home but nothing regular and it is more in a fun way, like she makes cards and signs her name on it and such stuff. Don’t you think Homework might not be a good idea at this age ?

This put me off. Next I noticed this young woman was too animated, not in the warm way but you know the kind who move around their hands daintily and make amazing faces while they talk. It is all very fine in many situations, but for a teacher for smal kids I prefer someone with a warm & kind smile and then you can flay your hands as much as long as you do not hold your fingers straight daintily.

I know I am being judgmental but hey come on I need to judge when it comes to my daughter’s teacher. I do not also want to dislike my daughter’s teacher. I want to be sad and misty eyed when my daughter moves on from this class. I want to like her teacher. Let me hope she turns out to be fine and her exuberant theoretical knowledge gives way for more love and tender care for these kids.

Ok she also made us do a family project which I grumbled about. The end result was nice though. All you artsy-crafty moms can try this out for your next project

The Me Board

For this “Me Board” you need the following

1. A posterboard
2. Cardborad or posterboard to make cut outs of your kids hands and feet
3. A paper plate to make the face
4. Lots of pics and other stuff to glue on the posterboard
5. Decorate the face with hair, googly eyes, beads etc.
6. Paste the feet and hand cut out as shown
   
   

School Chale Hum

(This post by Sandeepa)



School Chale Hum....Beautiful !!!!


Found it at Ammani's