Hellobee Boards

I’ve been seeing this thread for weeks and it was only today that I realized OMG, this applies to me!

Name: B
Birth month: January
Type of school: public
Transportation: drop-off at the attached daycare

The cutoff in Ontario is the end of the calendar year, so B will be among the oldest. We had kindergarten registration in January, and there’s an open house tomorrow. Our situation is slightly complicated by the fact that the school we want him to go to is not our home school (it’s the school that has the French immersion program, but that doesn’t start until grade 1, and we’d like to avoid him having to switch) so he’s they can’t actually guarantee us a spot - technically up until the end of the first week of school he could be sent to his home school instead - but we’re told that it’s almost certainly going to work out. The other complicating factor is that while he is guaranteed a spot in the before/aftercare program at the attached daycare, my younger son is currently on the waitlist for their preschool program, so we might be doing two drop offs.

B is really shy and doesn’t adapt easily to new situations, and has been in the same daycare with the same kids since he was 1, so I’m really nervous about starting school and a new daycare at the same time, but I’m crossing my fingers. He has mentioned to me several times that he’s nervous, which makes me so sad.

I went to (parents-only) Kindergarten Orientation tonight! There are four Kindergarten classes at our school and the teachers were there to go over the things the kids will be learning (site words, writing a sentence or two, reading, counting, addition, subtraction, etc). It all sounded fairly simple and I'm feeling a lot more confident about Xander, especially since he's been in Pre-School and Pre-K classes at his daycare. I think he'll do fine! They also answered any of our questions (how do they handle food allergies, will they have access to any needed medication, where and when is drop-off/pick-up, etc).

The worst part though was when another parent asked about sheltering in place. They do that, they have lock-down drills and fire drills. They advised us not to send kids in those light-up sneakers because during a lock-down drill, they close the doors and turn off the lights and hide under desks and you don't want your kid lighting up when they are supposed to be hidden. They also talked about how they've changed their fire drills now so that they don't all exit onto the fenced in playground but now exit on all sides of the building out into the open in case kids need to run from a shooter...

@Adira: Oh my God, how can you stand it? That’s heartbreaking.

Ugh I see the topic above but I’ll share a positive story instead. We had orientation last week and I love the school! One of the thing I’ve been most worried about is lo having accidents and every kinder class has its own bathroom. I am so relieved! We haven’t had our preschool graduation yet and it was kinda nice to see the new School and feel the positive energy first!

@Mrs D: What, if anything, are you planning on doing for a birthday party? My son turns five two days before school starts. It doesn't make sense to invite preschool friends, he was only with them for a year, preschool ended in May, and he will probably not see them again, but it seems awkward to invite the kindergarten class, and hard to plan. We are considering doing a special day instead, like an amusement park, but I don't know if he would miss out on having a friends birthday party.

We bought the package of supplies from the school. The package includes a PTA membership and a t-shirt. I suspect we will buy a new backpack.

@mdf106: Regarding birthday, I'm asking his teacher for a list beforehand for invites. It's a little easier for me as S's birthday isn't until the end of September, but we're going with his new class rather than his old class. If, at the end of the summer, he's spent a bunch of time with some of the kiddos over the summer, we may invite them as well.

My Dds Birthday is Mid-September but I am thinking we will have her party early Sept. I will just invite her preschool friends who she has known for years and some close family friends. As she gets older and closer with her classmates i can see inviting the whole class

She has her preschool graduation next week We bought her a LL Bean book bag and lunch can for a little grad gift.

@2PeasinaPod: @JCCovi: Do teachers just give out contact info like that? I’m so used to daycare where all that is kept like a guarded secret. Actually, I’m not sure what I’d think of getting an email from a random school parent that I hadn’t met yet. My DD turns 5 just before school starts, but she’ll be inviting daycare friends. I imagine next year, she’ll want to invite school friends.

@2PeasinaPod: interesting

For those of you planning on enrolling your Lo’s in a second language/immersion program, what is the set up?

They recently revamped our French immersion program so that there are now 0 instructional minutes in English from grades 1-3. That concerns me (especially as a literacy teacher) but we will still put her in the program as she loves learning French and it is pretty important in our area to be bilingual. I’m happy that Kindergarten is still in English though to give her a transition year.

@Charm54: We’re entering a private Mandarin immersion program. There will be 40 minutes of English instruction per day (The subject will be... English). I think your kid should be totally fine without English in 1-3, I would just really make sure you’re doing a lot of reading at home as a family.

@Charm54: our school is two-way immersion and will be moving from 50/50 to 90/10 for the K classes this year. from everything i read, it's the more researched based model, so i'm gonna go with it. i spoke to someone whose girls are 5th and 8th grade are in the same kind of program and they're both bilingual and biliterate. the dad said that they just started super slow and while comparing them to another kid in a "regular" class in K or 1st would have made them seem behind, now they're well ahead of peers.

@Charm54: My son is starting at the French immersion school, but the French immersion program doesn’t start until grade 1, so he still has two years. As I understand it, once they hit grade one they go to all French in January, but I’m not 100% sure of the details.

@birdofafeather: We’re going to do soccer, a church program, and swim after school this fall. Soccer and swim are walking distance from our home but I’m a little nervous about 3 days of activities. I’m justifying soccer in that the kids really want to do it and we go to the park everyday anyway. Swim and church are not negotiable in my mind, so we just have to squeeze them in!

@birdofafeather: we're also just doing soccer in the Fall... and we may continue with swim lessons which he's been in for quite some time.

Disaster struck today and I’m super upset and stressed about it - the school B was set to attend in the fall, the school we’ve toured and met the teachers and played in the playground on a regular basis of, the school his friend is going to, the school with an attached daycare that our younger son is registered for, called to say he couldn’t attend. We’re out of area (it’s the immersion school) and while they did warn us that a spot wasn’t guaranteed, they all but assured us that it would be fine. Turns out it isn’t and now I need to find him a spot in a new daycare, make sure my son still has a spot in our current daycare (two dropoffs! Ugh!), hope our $200 deposit on the other daycare is refundable, and explain to him that he won’t be a Dolphin (the school mascot, he was excited) and he won’t be at school with his friend. DAMMIT!