Tending the Eclectic Kinder-Garden

… to bring you a review of my day!

All of today’s blogging time was set aside for mother/daughter eye exams, grocery shopping, drug screening/testing for my employment, and a visit to my new school to pick up keys and drop off classroom materials.  I think it’s time for me to post some drafts in the queue just in case, but until then:

* I still don’t care for the blowy-puffy-here’s-grit-in-your-eye procedure that optometry techs seem to enjoy watching patients endure at the beginning of an eye exam.  What *is* that thing, anyway?  Is my eye dusty?  Are you testing me on my blink and flinch coordination?  Are you checking my mascara’s and eyeliner’s staying power?  My eyes water just thinking about it!

* I’ve been experiencing some confusing encounters at the grocery store I’ve been frequenting here since our arrival.  It’s on post, and each time I’ve gone, I’ve been approached by older ladies and gentlemen asking if my kids are “ready for VBS.”  Huh?  Each time their table has been surrounded by other people, so I’ve only been asked that one question before  the greeter has turned his or her attention to someone actually interested enough to stop and look at their display.  It wasn’t until this morning’s trip that I finally saw the table itself- and realized that VBS stands for “Vacation Bible School,” not “very big shoes” or “very bratty siblings.”  Enough with the abbreviations folks.  I get it with my husband’s military-jargon, I get it with all sorts of edu-speak, and I see it as I try to figure out just what my daughter is asking me for when she text messages me on her phone.

Spell…the…whole…thing…out…please.  And if you won’t,  please just step aside as I maneuver my way through the store with my thrilled-with-the-acoustics-toddler to get a loaf of bread, a container of milk, and a stick of butter.

* Drug screening.  Today was the first time *this* kindergarten teacher has had to walk in to a medical facility, surrender her i.d., allow someone else to lock up her purse and do the little aim-for-the-plastic-cup-routine with an audience standing right outside the bathroom door.  Oh, and I wasn’t allowed to flush the potty afterward either.  Yep, everything had to be as…witnessed…as possible.  Wow.  Just…wow.

* Yes indeedy, I did get the key to my classroom today!  Dear Daughter and I were so excited, so pleased, so impressed with what we saw as we walked through the school, peeking into classrooms, lounges, cafeterias, etc… and when we got to see my room, I just about cried.  This is the first time I’ve been given a classroom that is fully supplied.  FULLY.  I guess I’m no longer at a Title I school, and the difference leaves me in awe, and saddened.  Standardization across the nation?  Honeys, it isn’t happening.

The classroom is beautiful.  Most of it is appropriate for kindergarten, though my teacher’s desk is fixed to the wall as part of a built-in, and it seems I can’t lower it to a better height for use as the reading table.  The students’ coat cubbies are actually closets with doors (another interesting safety issue) and I have tons of storage for manipulatives, books, etc.  I’ll be sharing a bookroom and a set of student bathrooms with one of my colleagues by way of two “walk-through” areas.

* I’ve brought home a school binder that seems to have our policies and procedures explained in it, but getting them committed to memory is becoming more difficult with each new move I make.  Every school has its own set of rules, procedures, routines.  The first one used clipboards for fire drill and stranger danger drills, the next had little red and green paddles we were to hold up outside during a fire alarm along with scrap pad sign-off sheets that had to be turned in to the office after each drill.  The next required a binder or notebook with students’ names and contact info, while at this, my newest school, who knows what the variation will be.  In the past six years, I have had to follow four different rulebooks on school procedures for fire drills, xerox copying, attendance reporting, lunch requests, stranger danger, parent pick-up, field trip requests, classroom newsletters, professional development, parent teacher conferences, NCLB documentation, lesson plan formats and due dates, social club dues and rules, phone etiquette, lunch time and recess procedures, before and after school bus duty, parking space assignments, computer lab sign up, nurse pass procedures, email and internet do’s and don’ts, office errands, teacher lounge clean-up, grade level planning times, preps, and tornado safety practice.  Talk about a jumble.

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Off to bed (this is a late night posting)- I have a classroom to inventory and set up in the morning!

Tags: school, teaching

… because it’s just around the corner!

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If you have a kindergartner gearing up for the first day of school, it’s time to put yourself in his/her shoes in regard to LUNCH.

*Soggy sandwiches aren’t fun to eat, so try coating both pieces of bread with peanut butter with some jelly in the middle to avoid jelly-soak-through.

*Orange chips stain clothes. Yes, kids still wipe their hands all over their shirts and pants, ignoring the cute napkin you included in their lunchbox.  Lunch time is social time so kids are too busy chatting, visiting, and listening in on conversations to remember the good manners you taught them.

*Those little plastic wrappers on the straws for juice boxes don’t always have a slit cut into them.  Juice boxes tend to be easier to punch straws into than the pouch style drinks.

*Though teachers discourage it, food bartering/swapping still takes place at lunch or snack time.  Please remember that some students have food allergies, occasionally severe. It’s important that your child knows he/she is still a good friend even though s/he won’t share peanut butter cookies (or offer “just a taste” of some other treat) with classmates.

*If your child likes to save leftovers for a snack later in the day, please practice fastening those plastic storage lids or ziploc baggies NOW, otherwise, be prepared for very messy spills and mountains of crumbs in backpacks or lunch sacks.

*If you send a thermos with lunch, make sure your child knows which way is “up” when it comes to putting the thermos back in the lunch box, otherwise s/he will be back in Leak-and-Spillsville.

*Not every classroom has a refrigerator available, so if you live in hot climate, plan on skipping the mayo and milk.

*Snack packaging (the wrappers on cookies, chips, graham crackers, trail mix, fruit snacks, etc.) isn’t always easy for little hands to open.  Cut a small slit in the top of each to help ease your child’s frustration. The same goes for the tips of bananas, or the peels on oranges.

*Yes, teachers are happy to help your young ones learn how to open milk cartons and lunch wrappers, but children feel such a sense of accomplishment, independence and helpfulness when they can do it on their own and teach their friends the “tricks of the trade” as well.  Small milk cartons are available at most grocery stores if your kindergartner would like to practice before school starts.

*Not every child knows that you’d rather not open a lunchbox full of wrappers, banana peels, or used juice straws at the end of every day.  Additionally, kids don’t always know that you might want their plastic containers returned home!  Decide and discuss which items morph from “food wrappers” or containers to disposable trash, and which don’t.  You’ll keep a lot of  your Tupperware collection intact if you address this sooner rather than later. Ditto for silverware!

*Make sure you write your child’s name on that lunch box or lunch sack, because there’s always at least one classmate who will have the same one, or one similar looking enough that mix-ups will occur.

*If your child will purchase lunch at school each day, make sure you find out the “routine” in advance and see if you can prepay so your child won’t panic or experience a meltdown if lunch money has been lost on the playground.

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Do you have any tips or helpful hints for lunch time?  Please share by commenting!

Tags: kindergarten, school