Meet the teacher day

Took A. to meet his teacher at school today. She seemed nice, but there wasn't really much opportunity to talk with her since she was trying to divide her time between students, parents, and siblings all hanging out in her room. We met the brand new principal, who introduced herself to the two of us. Of course, when I went to introduce A. to her, he immediately pulled his hood over his head, made an about face, and quickly shuffled down the hall in the opposite direction. That's his way of being bashful. To know him is to love him. Imagine what he'd be like if he didn't want to go to school.

Received A's bus assignment, but had to call transportation to get him switched to a different stop. They want him to go to the stop that's closest to us, which seems like it would make sense, except that he'd have to cross the busy road at the bottom of our hill at 8:15am. Heck, I don't even want to have to cross that road during morning traffic - it can be dicey even at midday. Anyway, there's a stop at the top of our hill (neighborhood street, no intersections to cross) on a different bus, and the transportation department was able to change his info with no problem. All the half-day kindies hop on the same bus when their school day ends, and get driven directly to their homes. I hope his stop is at the beginning of that bus run! LOL!

Like I said, his teacher seems nice. She's probably in her late 30s, and has been at this school for at least a couple of years. Other than that, I really don't know anything about her - oh, except that she needs to have someone proof-read the letters she sends home to parents. So far she's letting spelling/grammatical errors slip through on a regular basis. Is that why she's teaching kindergarten, and not some higher grade? I have no idea. I'm trying to stay optimistic, and remember that teachers are human, too. I do know that there are 21 kids in his class, which I wasn't sure how to react to. A friend of mine (now a homeschooler, but her daughter had gone to kindergarten) assured me that 21 is a good class size. Actually, she said "Laura, I know that seems like a lot since we homeschool, but it's really not bad". LOL - I'll have to take her word for it. Seems like there was a pretty even mix of boys and girls, and a whole range of ages (well, a range from 5-6 years old, lol). One mom was concerned that her daughter was the oldest there because they had decided to hold off on kindergarten last year. Her bday was three days before the cut-off date, so she turns 6 this week. The youngest kid in the class turned 5 a few days ago. In looking around the room, A. seemed reassured by all the things around the room that were the same as at home - we have all the same math manipulatives at home that they do in class, which he thought was pretty cool. We also found the bathroom, and he gave it a try ("Mom, you know the place to go potty that's not a toilet, but it's on the wall? They had two of those - one higher and one lower! And you don't even have to flush them!" - I know nothing about urinals, so I hope that's true. Sound disgusting if you ask me, LOL!), and then went to the playground.

While we were out on the playground, I overheard a couple of girls playing together. They were probably 9 or 10 years old, and appeared to be friends. At one point, one of the girls was using the zipline, and the other was waiting for her turn. When the first made it back, the second girl says to her "Give it to me, NOW!" in this snotty tone, and tore it from her hands. Because it was so overtly rude, it kind of registered with me, but interestingly A. noted it too. He immediately looked to me and commented that he thought she sounded rude. I hope that he continues to be aware of what is and isn't socially appropriate, even months down the road when he's been in school for awhile.

N. got to go hiking with friends today, and had a great time. Fortunately she was dressed for the weather, with full rain gear, because while we didn't receive any rain here today, they got completely dumped on. I understand that she was in good spirits, in spite of the weather. And the family she went with even stopped for ice cream on the way home - what's better than that?