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M started today and so far so good! We had a meet and greet with the teacher and class last week and she knew at least 4 kids including her bff. The teacher already sent an email and photo of the class today and school isn't even over yet!
I'm very happy with the level of communication from our teacher - she has kids of similar age and really "gets it." -
How'd the first day go for you guys??
Xander started today. I'll have to post a photo later. He said he was excited and didn't seem too nervous. I felt kind of weird just leaving him there after we checked him in with his new teacher, but... I assume all will be well! Fingers crossed!!
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We don’t start until tomorrow. Ours is a traditional say goodbye and she gets on the school bus kind of drop off. No waking her to the classroom or anything. Super nervous for that and my ability to be organized! Hopefully we all sleep tonight and don’t have too many jitters!
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Day One seemed to go well! We sent him to the aftercare program for half an hour, just to get him used to it, and I think there was a mix-up with that because he told me after school he had to stand in the hot sun wearing his backpack while all the other kids got picked up, and then when his parents didn’t come he went to daycare - I felt AWFUL but I had told him he’d be going, plus at drop-off they asked who was picking him up and I said daycare, so...he didn’t seem super phased by it, and another neighbour said B was playing with her son when she came to pick him up, so whatever. We met his teacher when we came to get him and she seemed really nice, said he’d had a good day and was very enthusiastic and was eager to try everything, and he was fine at daycare dropoff this morning at the new daycare, so I’m cautiously optimistic!
I need to get lunches down, though - a) I have to remember to do it the night before and b) I’d like it to not take 15 minutes! But B did talk a lot about how he’d eaten all his food, so I guess that’s a good sign.
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@erinbaderin: Glad things went smoothly! Sorry to hear about the mix up in the afternoon though - that sounds super annoying!
When we dropped of Xander this morning, his teacher did double-check where he was going in the afternoon - she had him marked as Car Patrol (meaning he's being picked up), so that was right, and I told her it would be me. So hopefully that all goes smoothly today!
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My daughter had her first afternoon at school yesterday. It went well. The teacher put her on the wrong bus though! I had a 10 minute complete freak out while I was on the phone with the school waiting for them to sort it out. There are 3 buses that drive down our road (we are pretty close to the village), and she didn't get off any of them!! The school radioed the bus drivers and they found her, and the bus driver basically immediately turned around and brought her back.
I was so worried she'd be scared when she saw the bus fly by me waiting in front of our house but she was chatting with a new friend and didn't even notice!!
Alls well that ends well, the school handled it really quickly! -
@fancyfunction: thats so great! I don't expect that we'll be getting emails/photos from our teacher, but it would be great!
@Adira: our first day is happening now. it's a half day and he gets out in about 20 min! my DH is home to get him off the bus, i'm at work, he's going to facetime me when he gets off... he did GREAT at drop off.
@Silva: our teachers/principal had a whole talk with us about if they get on the wrong bus. I'm totally expecting that to happen at least once. scary!
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@Silva: Yikes, that's stressful! My kid would have totally loved that, though. Her favorite parts so far as the bus and playing tag in the afterschool program. The limited activity during the day is definitely getting to her.
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@Silva: Phew! So glad your school was able to handle that bus hiccup well! Glad it didn't phase your daughter at all!
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@hellobeeboston: our teacher seems really great and responsive - which is super helpful!
M already told me she wants to buy lunch so we may experiment with that on Fri when they serve pizza
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@fancyfunction: SAME. my son can't wait to buy pizza at school friday!
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Our first day went well! She was so excited and happy to go. I work at the school so I was able to watch her from afar a few times. She looked so grown up it brought tears to my eyes. Her teacher is amazing and sent me several pictures. She has a few good friends in her class from daycare so that helps too.
We do staggered entry which means only 5-6 kids go per day until all have a chance to go. So she went Tuesday, is off today and tomorrow and goes back Friday with everyone.
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So we’ve done two weeks now and R is exhausted! Depends On the day but she can either go right into class or be like today when she said her tummy her and she didn’t want to go and was on the edge of tears. So I think it’s a lot all at once: M-F, longer days of actual classroom time (where at preschool all afternoon was rest and unstructured playtime). I’m trying to be positive so she can be. By the end of the day, she’s happy and always said she has a good time (although her other word for it is boring!
).
How are the other kiddos who have been going a bit doing?
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@Adira: omg too cute!
DD started this week and all is going well. She has 28 kids in her classes and 1 teacher. I wish it was less. I’m use to 20 kids and 2 teaches at her old preschool!
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Catching up on everyone's updates and happy to hear it's going overall well!
@Charm54: yay for a good first day!! 🤗
@birdofafeather: we've been back at school for 3 weeks I think and doing well. I'm actually bummed that my third LO won't qualify for TK.. I think it has helped a lot. I've heard the same from other parents who also did TK before us.
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T had 2 afternoons this week, and was surprisingly emotional after the second one. She had a total emotional breakdown. It surprised me because she was only there for less than two hours Tuesday and Wednesday, and she's done full day preschool 2/3 days a week for the past two school years (plus some daycare before that!). But transitions aren't easy for anyone. She won't talk too much about it, I think its hard for them to find the words, but she did say she was feeling worried about losing her old friends.
My heart goes out to those of you who are dealing with this transition in a more full scale way- I can't imagine how exhausted your kiddos are! Mine isn't sleeping well (though thats kind of the status quo around here, so its hard to know if its a change or not).
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B seems to be doing well - I’m actually pretty pleased, I expected the transition to be harder, but I guess the days are about the same length, although probably more structured? But he seems happy enough to go, and we get details in bit and pieces - yesterday he told me “today I learned that a teacher is just like a master except a teacher doesn’t do any Kung-fu. Like, none at all.” So....yay? I’m actually more worried about our neighbour - he’s the same age as B, they’ve been friends since birth, and his mom told me last night he was crying, saying he didn’t have any friends, and that everybody hated him, and asking to switch into B’s class. I’m feeling pretty guilty because we specifically requested to be in the class of another neighbour who was going into SK, but didn’t mention this boy deliberately, I thought it might be good for B to get a fresh start because he seems to have a bit of a hot/cold relationship with him. On the other hand, they could have requested to have our kids in a class together and they didn’t...anyway, I suspect he’s just overtired and dramatic, but my heart goes out to him and his mom.
Communications issues continue, though - there’s apparently a Meet the Teacher night next week and maybe some sort of barbecue? But we’ve heard nothing from the school and the teacher just mentioned it in passing and didn’t have any details (“I think it might be Wednesday?”).
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@dolphin: Oh wow, that is a huge ratio! Our county mandates no more than 22 kids/classroom (kiddo has 21) and 2 teachers for the Ks.
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@erinbaderin: Same here for communication. This is our second week and I have no idea what their daily schedule is like or what they might be learning. No idea if there will be parent-teacher conferences or any sense of progress reports. I assume there should be?
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@erinbaderin: @Mrs. Carrot: Our school website has some of that info, though no real details. There's an Open House next week (not sure what that entails), Progress Reports on October 18th, and Teacher/Parent Conferences on October 25-26. I'm assuming there will be more details as it gets closer... Hopefully??
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@dolphin: That is big. We have 19 kids in the class, and the max at the school is 22.
We are in our fourth week, and he is loving it. It is a big transition, as he was used to three mornings a week of preschool, had a mostly unstructured summer, and didn't know anyone at school. He has never had trouble with transitions though. He does not even seemed that tired, although he has been fighting bedtime. He has a "best friend" he constantly talks about, and asked to join the cub scouts (on top of soccer, swim lessons, and religious school). At first his favorite part of the day was lunch, but it shifted to recess since he has made friends.
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@Mrs. Carrot: @mdf106: I know it stinks! I wish the class size was smaller.
We go to our neighborhood public school and it's overcrowded. I heard some years it can be 30 something kids! But everyone that has gone to her school said it's a good school and not to worry so much about class size and the teacher can handle it. We'll have to see... 
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I feel like L has started to adjust somewhat to the length of the days, now that we’re several weeks in. She seems to really be enjoying it. The class is much smaller than I expected for public school - there are 17 in her class, and it’s the largest of the 5 kinder classes! They have a lot of fun themed days for the kindergarteners. They had teddy bear day last week where the kids brought their teddies, went on a bear hunt around school and did a bunch of bear-themed activities.
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First day was a success for D! He made fast friends with a first grader at the bus stop when they bonded over their mutual love of Batman. I was trying to get more details about his day and he says,” They haven’t even taught me to read yet.”
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How’s everyone doing? We’re on week 4 and I feel like this adjustment to K and afterschool care is kicking my butt. First I thought things were ok, last week I thought DD was shutting down (wouldn’t talk to us, do any reading or even let us read to her) the last two days it seems like she’s liking it and doing well. I hope this recent trend continues.
Afterschool care seems to be the biggest stressor. She’s in with kids up to 5th grade so the expectations are pretty high. At the end of last week I was near ready to pull her out. This week is going better but I still want to explore my options to see what my backup plan would be. The only other options I know of in town are two Chinese schools but I’d be looking for a place with more free play.
How is aftercare working out for others?
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We’re having some problems with our daycare as well (it’s before and after for us) - B keeps saying he doesn’t want to go. I’m trying to draw it out of him but all I’m getting is that they don’t have good toys. The care is in one of the kindergarten rooms so I’m not really sure what we can do, but since I already feel guilty about how much time he spends there it makes me feel so awful when he tells me he doesn’t want to go.
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We're only on week 2, but things seem to be going well. Haven't heard any complaints yet, at least! Xander doesn't know the name of any of the kids in his class yet, haha.
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@erinbaderin: It’s so hard when they don’t want to go. Before school care is the one area DD isn’t complaining about. Our neighbor pointed out that her son likes it because he gets to play with the hot commodity items that the kids have to share in the more popular afterschool care. That seemed to resonate with DD. They also give sweeter breakfast foods than I’d like her to have on a daily basis. I’m not thrilled by it but since my son’s preschool drop off is a tearful tantrum fest I’m letting that go.
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@Corduroy: We’re in week 4 and so far my son seems to really enjoy school, never complains, even though we’re all exhausted. He went to full day daycare but only 3 days a week before so that addition of 2 days has been tiring.
He HATES after school care though. It’s a small program with a smaller number of kids in a wide age range. He says it’s boring and never wants to go. The first week when I picked him up they had all the kids plopped in front of a tv watching a movie. I was livid! I complained to the principal who agreed that was inappropriate and I haven’t seen it on since at least. To be honest, out of guilt, I’m adjusting my schedule at work so I can pick him up by 4 or 4:30pm (otherwise pick up would be 5:30-6).
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We're on week 2 and things are going well! M bought lunch for the first time yesterday and told me she sits at the "girls" table - and so it begins
She did mention a girl in her class was crying yesterday b/c no one wanted to play with her at recess and M told me she and her bestie played with the girl. I thought that was sweet and hopefully a trend that continues -
We're only on day 4, but everything seems good so far. My daughter's class is only 15 kids with 1 teacher and 3 assistants because 2 kids in her class have a 1:1 teacher's aide. Her head teacher seems really nice so far and Both the teacher and the TA have mentioned how good M's behavior is and how smart she is, so she seems to be settling in fine.
We ended up hiring our part time nanny for more hours--now she comes over in the morning to dress the girls and do their hair before walking them to their respective drop off points. Unfortunately, The doors for K open at 8:10am, but don't open for pre-k until 8:25 am, so there's some lag time where our sitter and DD2 just have to stand around outside--that's going to be interesting in winter.
The same thing happens in the afternoon--pre-k pickup is 2:30 and K pickup isn't till 3. So again our sitter just has to entertain DD2 for 30 minutes outside.
We signed DD1 up for aftercare on Mondays and wesnesdays only to take French. She's only been twice but said she liked it. I don't know how much she'll retain because she's taking Mandarin twice a week during the school day too. 🤷♀️
So far so good! We have had a couple little worksheets sent home for homework--I'm not overly thrilled with that, mainly because they were low level pre-k type stuff, so it seemed like a time waster.
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DD is just about finished her first week of kindergarten. It’s french immersion, so she’s been telling me words “did you know that pink is rose in french”. And singing french songs. It’s cute. She’s very overwhelmed at recess though - she’s says there’s too many kids (school has 280 kids from k-5).
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So we had Open House last night, which would've been so nice to have had BEFORE school started, but I guess this is the norm.
I'm loving Xander's Kindergarten teacher though! She does a lot of learn-through-play activities and doesn't do a ton of rigid structured stuff. Also no homework! And she doesn't believe in having behavior charts that just end up shaming kids and taking way too much of a kids' focus. I'm feeling really good about her and I think it'll be a great environment for Xander!
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@Adira: That’s so funny, we had ours on Wednesday and I agree, it would have been nice to have two weeks ago! I didn’t actually find ours too helpful, it was just an hourlong drop-in in the evening, parents were lined up to talk to the teachers so I basically just said “how’s he doing?” and left it at that (as opposed to the woman ahead of me, who talked at length about her eight year old’s college track and field options!), and when I got home I realized I’d forgotten to ask about the two things I wanted details on - iPad use in the classroom and lockdown drills. Further complicating the situation - B was showing me where they put their shoes on, saw a kid outside, and immediately and passionately wanted to go out and play and got pretty upset.
I do really like his teachers, though, and they were both really positive about how he’s doing - the first word they both used to describe him was “sweet” and they said he likes to participate and is doing well socially.
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@erinbaderin: Oh, that sounds kind of annoying! Ours was a more general thing - the teacher had a whole list of things to go over and it wasn't one-on-one. She showed up her website and how to find certain details; went over the things they were going through in class, how she handles birthdays (no treats for the class because of food allergies), a tour of the classroom, etc. Then opened it up to general questions. We'll have Parent-Teacher Conferences in October which is when I'll be able to really get to talk one-on-one with her. Although we can always email her with questions.
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@erinbaderin: And see, I would love to have one now that we've gotten into school, so I can have a conversation with the teachers about how things are going and what they're doing. The one we had before school was just a quick meet and greet and there wasn't much to talk about yet, but now I want to know what they're doing every day and we don't have anything coming up that will allow us to do that (other than emailing the teacher, which I kinda feel bad doing).
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Crazy bus story- I went to pick up my DS at the bus stop yesterday and he didn’t get off the bus! I spoke with the bus driver and she quickly scanned the bus to see if he had fallen asleep. She radios back to school and discovered that he had been placed on ANOTHER bus! I had to go to his elementary and wait for the other bus to finish their route.
Somehow, 2 adults managed to get him on the wrong bus. The paraprofessional walks the class to the busses and then this other bus driver missed him getting in the WRONG bus. I emailed the principal. They need to work on their logistics as their current system isn’t working, or they just need to pay attention. I’m so grateful that he was FINE, but it is crazy to me that this happened to a 5 year old.
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@Alba4: I bet you were freaking out! Was he upset by it?
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@JCCovi: He was upset and mad. I think he at first felt embarrassed that it happened. He didn’t want to talk about what happened and he even requested that we not tell my husband. Poor kid!
Luckily it opened up the conversation about being aware of our surroundings. The importance of looking for neighbors and people you know before you get on a bus. We reviewed his bus number and the name of his bus driver.
We go to our neighborhood public school and it's overcrowded. I heard some years it can be 30 something kids! But everyone that has gone to her school said it's a good school and not to worry so much about class size and the teacher can handle it. We'll have to see... 
She did mention a girl in her class was crying yesterday b/c no one wanted to play with her at recess and M told me she and her bestie played with the girl. I thought that was sweet and hopefully a trend that continues 
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