Hellobee Boards

@Mamaof2: Sort of. You have to be an approved school district volunteer, meaning you are background checked and credentialed with the district. The doors are locked, you are buzzed into the building, have to register in the office (including showing drivers license, which is scanned again for any crimes) and then can have lunch. Our school has a full cafeteria as well, parents aren't allowed to sit in. But, we have a really nice outdoor seating area (where we were) with picnic tables and benches. We also have a variety of tables in the main hall (bar height and standard) where students can sit with their guest as well. On this particular day the weather was amazing but no one was outside except us. Typically the outside area is busy and there might be two families at each picnic table.

@808love: At this recent lunch encounter, my kid was telling my how other kid hasn't had any sad notes in her binder all year (woot for other kid!). I complimented other kid and told my kid that's rather amazing. We have been talking about modeling good behaviors and trying to leave some of our bad behaviors behind. So this turned into an interesting but awkward conversation amongst us with our "friends". The mom then shared with me how her kid had horrible separation anxiety at the start of the year. And transitioning into kinder was hard. I think she was trying to make the situation less awkward. But then I realized EVERY time I go to the school this mom is there. I have been to lunch probably 5 times this school year. I asked my kid if this mom is there every day. YES. Well gosh, I'm not sure that's the best way to deal with separation anxiety. The conversation have all been awkward.

Our school allows parents at lunch.

We ran into a similar situation Fall semester when I was on maternity leave and I would take the extra time to load the baby, park the car, get out the stroller and actually walk my kindergartner into class. To get exercise and some more time together we would park further back in the neighborhood. Of course this other mom would catch up to us and want to chat my ear off. It defeated the purpose of me going through the effort to spend time with my daughter (who needed some 1:1 mom time after the new baby was born). We adjusted our timing and sometimes would just talk very closely so they could tell we were in a deep conversation.

Could you maybe go early and catch the mom before lunch and say something like, Its been great catching up with you at lunch but would you mind if I sat with my child alone today? We really need some one on one time.

@MamaG: So have you had just two sort of negative interactions with this woman, or has she bothered you every time you've gone to have lunch with your child? I know there are some parents in my daughter's school and specifically in her class who eat lunch frequently with their child(ren). I don't know about every day, but often. They do volunteer work in the school and come in for lunch. Just about anyone can have lunch at school if they're buzzed in and registered in the office and there are other tables in the cafeteria for parents to eat at with their kids. If I was having lunch with my DD and I saw another parent/child from her class, I wouldn't think twice about asking if we could sit with them (if my DD wanted to). I would feel like that was being friendly and trying to get to know some of the other families in her class because there aren't so many opportunities otherwise. I agree with @looch's suggestion of a offering to meet at a neutral playdate location and going from there.

@Pancakes: It started in February at a classroom function. The mom introduced herself, told me she arranges playdates. Asked for my number and said she'd text me next time she had a playdate. Fine. Easy peasy.

The next time was at lunch a couple of weeks later. Asked to sit with us. Again about the playdate, then asked more questions about our work situation. Fine, no big deal. She offered to transport my kid. That's when it started to go down hill. I explained my discomfort. Told her I didn't mean to be offensive, but she's really no more than a friendly acquaintance and I wasn't comfortable.

At that point, I did say perhaps we could have a weekend playdate and see if I could get more comfortable. She declined as that interferes with her family time. Her DH sounds like he doesn't like kids. She tries to do playdates in the afternoon before he gets home. I said we could meet at a park. She declined again. At that point I wrote this off. Clearly we can't coordinate so it's not worth it to me.

She texted me during spring break asking for a playdate. I declined as we were going to the zoo that day as a family.

The two encounters I've described already are subsequent to this.

@T.H.O.U.: Yes! I just want some quality 1:1 time with my kid. Her lunch is 30 minutes long, can I just sit and talk to my kid for 30 minutes? I'm happy to be polite to other people, but don't smother me. That's sort of how I feel now.

@looch: maybe it still feels far away for him? We have nearly 2 months of school left so my son knows that all of the "summer" activities are not happening anytime soon. But like @Mamaof2: said, he'll probably get more excited when the camps start!

LO needed a pep talk to go to school the other day. She didn't want to go which is unlike her and she is feeling burned out. She said she just wants to go to the pool or beach everyday and school is too long. I reminded her she has only a few more weeks left with her friends in this class before they get shuffled. Also to enjoy her teacher now because she will be in first grade soon. That helped a bit.
I didn't do camps this summer but I did register for swim class. I have big plans for camps in future years though.

I agree with the burnout theory. DS1 is normally excited and into just about everything - but lately he's been tired and kind of 'blah'. Yesterday, he was even dragging his feet about swim practice and second-guessing his decision to join the team, which he usually adores - he normally half-drags me out of the house to take him to practice!

@looch: LO did art camp during the fall and she loved it. It was very relaxing and completely different than school.

@MamaG: Congratulations on finishing out the year!

Yesterday was her last full day and then she has 3 half days, finishing up next Tuesday. There have been SOOO many end of year activities that yesterday she was very over tired and over stimulated (even though she was so excited they didn't have any work pages to do at school).

Tomorrow's our last day! Woo hoo! We made it : ). I agree that May has been one huge party - but ours at least was well-planned and fairly educational : ). Our first swim meet is tonight until 11 PM...I think the only reason I'll be able to get DS out of bed is because it's the last day...!

We're officially done (i.e., passed our first-ever evals--hooray!). We're going to celebrate the end of the year on Friday. I'm thinking pizza, salad, and cake followed by a movie to mark the occasion. I feel like I ought to make a little deal about the 'last day' because the next year is going to start on Tuesday. We'll probably do some pictures too.

@tlynne: That's great to hear. LO can swim across the pool and back and tread for a minute (just passed the swim test) but no formal strokes. We will work on with summer lessons and then try swim club. We took off of activities this year (except art camp) to aid adjustment and we are ready to choose a few for the upcoming year.

LO is mysteriously amped up about school. At first she was all about her teacher but now she just keeps saying I just LOVE learning.

We also still have a bit more than a month to go. There are a number of long weekends though (this weekend is a 4 day weekend for us), and they've had some fun activities recently, like a boat ride, and a footrace. Next week they are going to visit a miniature village and there is a book swap planned.

What, if anything, are you going to have your kids do this summer to keep up their academics? I made a deal with my son that for every book he reads for leisure, he can earn a point that can be converted into cash to buy a prize at the end of the summer. He has made a lot of progress in reading this year (he basically started out at zero), but he doesn't pick up books and read for fun. This little challenge has motivated him for the past few days, so I hope it sticks. I also will not prod him to do it, he has to do it on his own.

@looch: Magazines are a good idea! My kids are gifted French magazine subscriptions every year and they are a big hit! It's also something to look forward to in the mailbox.

@lamariniere: @looch: @Mrs. Yoyo: Wow, I missed this conversation a couple of weeks ago. We have a couple weeks left and then we're done! My DD is a huge bookworm so I won't pay her to read (in any currency) but our library has a fantastic summer reading program so we'll do that. I don't think her teacher did a good job on emphasizing correct letter formation and I've noticed that she forms a lot of her letters from the bottom up and her handwriting isn't very neat so I ordered a Handwriting Without Tears workbook and I'll do that with her and I'm going to look into putting some new math apps on my iPad. Last summer the Target dollar spot had some fun workbooks and she got out the Presidents one over the weekend and started working on that again so I'll be checking to see if they carry something like those again. We also picked up an Usborne activity book for a recent trip and that had a lot of fun things like unscrambling words and prompts for writing little stories so we'll have that on hand as well. Luckily she likes doing those types of activities so I don't have to push her too much (we'll see about the handwriting thing!).

@lamariniere: we do 1 page from a workbook each morning before camp starts and then normal reading before bedtime

Our last day is the 13th - we are in countdown mode!!!