Preschool/kindergarten stuff
This was supposed to be about the situations at both kids' childcare places, but the part about Ruthie got too long and I need to rewrite it to be coherent ;) so I'll just post this part for now.
Isaac's preschool gave me a "progress report" which I guess is the last one he will get. It basically said that he is brilliant, helpful, and an all-around great kid, which of course I knew. :) At the end it said something like "Isaac is a wonderful, helpful, amazing kid and we will really miss him." Okay, maybe they say that for every kid, but I can fool myself. ;)
I'm frustrated with the school system, though, because of the lack of communication. The calendar that has been on the school dept website for months now, showing the upcoming school year, shows the first day of school as September 3rd (Wednesday). Ages ago I had heard a rumor that kindergarten kids start later, so I asked around and got blank looks. So I was assuming that Isaac's first day would be the 3rd. Last week there was a post on a local parenting list saying that in fact the first day of kindergarten would be Sept 8th (Monday) with orientation on the 4th and 5th. And saying that a letter would go out to parents about this on August 4th (this past Monday).
I did indeed get a letter, which is pretty ridiculously uninformative. It has a space for them to write in the kid's teacher's name, but they just wrote "[name of school] kindergarten teacher." It says that the first day of school will be Sept 8th and that my orientation "slot" is Friday the 5th at 9:15am but if I can't come then, they have open orientation times at 9 and 1 on Thursday and Friday. It does NOT say what orientation will entail. How long is it? What should I bring? Is it an orientation where I drop Isaac off and leave, or where I stay? Will it just be me and Isaac and the teacher, or a bunch of kids all together? Most importantly, HOW MUCH TIME DO I NEED TO TAKE OFF WORK??
I can't tell you how irritating I find it that they don't tell you these CRUCIAL details. Not to mention the fact that they waited until August 4th to tell me that school will start almost a whole week later than I had thought! Now I need to figure out what the hell to do with Isaac for that week, because preschool graduation is the Friday before (Aug 29th) and I assume that his preschool is assuming that he won't come back the following week. Now IF the orientation on Friday morning the 5th is only a brief like half-hour thing between me and Isaac and the teacher, then I can just take a couple hours off work, which would be good because I can't take too much off right around now. But that leaves me needing childcare coverage for all of Tuesday and Thursday, and most of Friday. (Not Monday because it's Labor Day so I'll be off work anyway, and not Wednesday because that's my mom's day with Isaac.)
So my mom seems to think that I should talk to other parents at Isaac's preschool and try to cobble together enough coverage for the week. Really I would prefer to just call the preschool and find out if they can take him for those three days, because I hate to put other parents out and I don't know if there's enough room there to cover all three days (some may already have plans -- some may have different kindergarten start dates -- etc.) and I feel like, I'm going to basically spend the next ten-plus years cobbling together childcare, why start before I have to?
Anyway, I understand that this kind of egregious lack of communication / lack of consideration for the needs of working parents is par for the course with public-school systems, and I should just get used to it and live with it. I suppose I will, over time. But for now, I'm feeling extremely pissy about it. :P
more to come....
Isaac's preschool gave me a "progress report" which I guess is the last one he will get. It basically said that he is brilliant, helpful, and an all-around great kid, which of course I knew. :) At the end it said something like "Isaac is a wonderful, helpful, amazing kid and we will really miss him." Okay, maybe they say that for every kid, but I can fool myself. ;)
I'm frustrated with the school system, though, because of the lack of communication. The calendar that has been on the school dept website for months now, showing the upcoming school year, shows the first day of school as September 3rd (Wednesday). Ages ago I had heard a rumor that kindergarten kids start later, so I asked around and got blank looks. So I was assuming that Isaac's first day would be the 3rd. Last week there was a post on a local parenting list saying that in fact the first day of kindergarten would be Sept 8th (Monday) with orientation on the 4th and 5th. And saying that a letter would go out to parents about this on August 4th (this past Monday).
I did indeed get a letter, which is pretty ridiculously uninformative. It has a space for them to write in the kid's teacher's name, but they just wrote "[name of school] kindergarten teacher." It says that the first day of school will be Sept 8th and that my orientation "slot" is Friday the 5th at 9:15am but if I can't come then, they have open orientation times at 9 and 1 on Thursday and Friday. It does NOT say what orientation will entail. How long is it? What should I bring? Is it an orientation where I drop Isaac off and leave, or where I stay? Will it just be me and Isaac and the teacher, or a bunch of kids all together? Most importantly, HOW MUCH TIME DO I NEED TO TAKE OFF WORK??
I can't tell you how irritating I find it that they don't tell you these CRUCIAL details. Not to mention the fact that they waited until August 4th to tell me that school will start almost a whole week later than I had thought! Now I need to figure out what the hell to do with Isaac for that week, because preschool graduation is the Friday before (Aug 29th) and I assume that his preschool is assuming that he won't come back the following week. Now IF the orientation on Friday morning the 5th is only a brief like half-hour thing between me and Isaac and the teacher, then I can just take a couple hours off work, which would be good because I can't take too much off right around now. But that leaves me needing childcare coverage for all of Tuesday and Thursday, and most of Friday. (Not Monday because it's Labor Day so I'll be off work anyway, and not Wednesday because that's my mom's day with Isaac.)
So my mom seems to think that I should talk to other parents at Isaac's preschool and try to cobble together enough coverage for the week. Really I would prefer to just call the preschool and find out if they can take him for those three days, because I hate to put other parents out and I don't know if there's enough room there to cover all three days (some may already have plans -- some may have different kindergarten start dates -- etc.) and I feel like, I'm going to basically spend the next ten-plus years cobbling together childcare, why start before I have to?
Anyway, I understand that this kind of egregious lack of communication / lack of consideration for the needs of working parents is par for the course with public-school systems, and I should just get used to it and live with it. I suppose I will, over time. But for now, I'm feeling extremely pissy about it. :P
more to come....