First I want to say "Thank You" to Cape Girl for tagging me with the "5 quirky things about you Meme". I have already done this Meme here before and I thought I might try to think up five new things but I couldn't think of any. So, if you didn't catch it the first time I posted it you can click here to read about me and all my strangeness! I'm supposed to tag 5 more people but I think most of you have done this one before, but if you haven't....Tag your it! Thanks Capegirl!
Second, I wanted to tell you all about my "Proud American". EC is in second grade and her teacher randomly gives out 2 awards. The first is the good friend award and its a little dog tag type necklace with a smiley face on the tag part. If she catches any student in her class doing something kind or being helpful to another student they get to wear the good friend award for the day. She doesn't give it out every day so its a big deal when she does. The second is called the "Proud American" award. Every morning at the school the principal comes over the loud speaker and leads the classes in the pledge to the flag and then plays the National Anthem over the speaker and all the kids sing. If Mrs. Jones (EC's teacher) catches one of her students standing extra straight and tall, with the correct hand over his or her heart (still sometimes an issue at this age!), or singing the Anthem proudly, then she might decide to give that student the Proud American Award for that day. Again, she doesn't do this every day so its a big deal. Last Thursday I decided to surprise EC and show up to have lunch for with her. When she saw me standing in the hall she ran up and said, "Look mom I'm the Proud American today" She was wearing a dog tag style necklace and the tag part had a picture of the flag on it. I said "Oh, were you standing extra tall and singing extra proudly?" "Nope" she said. Her teacher then walks up and tells me that no, its better than that. Apparently when the principal came over the loud speaker that morning the CD player that plays the music to the National Anthem wouldn't play. The students stood there waiting and waiting and after about 30-45 seconds nothing happened. Well, my sweet angel, EC, started singing acapella all by herself and by the time she got to "by the dawn's early light" all the other kids in class had joined her! Mrs. Jones awarded her the necklace on the spot and said that EC couldn't have been prouder! I was so proud that I got tears in my eyes!
On a completely different note, we are thinking about taking Little Sister and Little Brother out of Mother's Morning Out. We pay $160 a month for both of them to go 4 hours 3 times a week. It's not that we can't afford it, it's that I feel like I'm wasting my money. Little Sister's class is supposed to be Pre-K, and they do learn a lot in there but she isn't. Why? She already knows what the teacher is having to teach the other kids. Knowing all the letters of the alphabet and the sounds they make? Knows it. Writing her name? Done. Colors? Yep. Shapes? Yep. In fact, she is reading already. She won't be 5 until December and won't start kindergarten until next fall and she is already reading simple words. I feel like I'm paying $80 a month for her to go play. Hubs and I are deciding if it would be best to leave her there, or bring her home and me home school her until next fall. We are extremely torn over this! We have gone back and forth on this for about a week. Her teacher told me the other day that she can't even get some of the students to hold their pencils correctly and what sound the letter "A" makes and Little Sister is going around the room saying "Dad, D-A-D spells Dad." Does anyone else have thoughts on this?
7 comments:
Hey girl! K was the same way A is last year in preschool...well...all but the reading part. My first thought when you asked...what our thoughts were... is structure. To me it is hard enough on children to go from being home all summer to kindergarten....think about how it would be on her going from 10 months at home to school all day. As horrible as this sounds....she is better off "knowing it all" now and actually not learning more than continuing to learn more and being absolutely bored in kindergarten. I hope what I am saying makes since....I totally understand what you are saying because I felt the exact same way last year! K already knew everything they did in her pre-K class....and knows all of what they do now in kindergarten....of course now she can read (well...not all the way but she can sound out most words if she thinks about it) I'll be honest and tell you that I did not work with K on reading on purpose last year...inhibiting her learning...yeah...that might sound REALLY bad...but I did it so that she wouldn't be bored to tears in kindergarten and now I am so thankful I did that because she comes home now and gets so bored with any homework that isn't reading....she has known how to write her name forever, sounds, shapes, phone number, address, birthday, etc. Some of the children don't know anything...
Whatever you do I'm sure it will be the right decision for "A"....I'm not saying keeping her home would be the worst thing in the world...what I am trying to say is don't feel bad that she isn't learning anything else...she will be bored to death in kindergarten if she does! Good luck in your decision!
I'm not able to relate since my 16 month old is far from that stage, but I did have a friend with a very similar problem. She was taking her son once a week and he wasn't really getting anything out of it. She ended up putting him in for 3 times a week and then things started to click better.
That is frustrating. I hope you figure it all out soon. Hugs.
~melody~
I'm not able to relate since my 16 month old is far from that stage, but I did have a friend with a very similar problem. She was taking her son once a week and he wasn't really getting anything out of it. She ended up putting him in for 3 times a week and then things started to click better.
That is frustrating. I hope you figure it all out soon. Hugs.
~melody~
My children have passed this stage-but looking back and seeing what others are doing my thought is even if she isn't learning specific tasks she is honing her skills of working with others. My experience of having taken my youngest out of a pre-k setting and then trying to have him start "real" school the next year was not so good. He had gotten quite comfortable being at home and suffered separation anxiety. The other plus for having little ones in school a few hours a week-you have some me time, which shouldn't be underrated!
My first time here (I think I got here from GRITS) but my kids are grown and I can tell you that it doesn't make one bit of difference what they can do academically at 4 years old in the big picture. If she's enjoying it, you're enjoying the free time (I can't imagine keeping my kids at home back then...I needed the time to do stuff like take a shower and go to Target!) then I would so not sweat it about the schoolwork part of it. She's learning a lot more about being with other people, being tolerant and patient with others at different levels of development and this is really what preschool is about, not academics. They just throw that in so parents feel better about spending the money (for future reference, it's the same with private school--they load on the homework so you feel like you're getting your money's worth and it's mostly just busy work).
You have plenty of time for all that other stuff. My kids would've been heartbroken to be taken out of preschool. They loved it, it was "their" place. Independence from mommy is a good thing, that's how they discover who they are.
Best of luck with whatever you decide.
Hi!
Sounds like I'm kind of the odd duck out on my opinion regarding your daughter and school. As a past first grade teacher(I taught for 10 years before having kids and staying home with them),my opinion is that I would DEFINITELY keep her home and do the homeschool thing. I had a couple of student's whose families did that and they were JUST FINE socially. Pre-school is more of a organized babysitter basically. It is very helpful for kids whose parents are not very involved and may be the only time the kids have structure doing "academic" type things (reading, beginning writing, etc...) however it soudns like you and your husband are very involved parents and your daughter is doing very well. I would take the time to have the one on one homeschool experience with her...even going new places and exploring, reading together, cooking...Continue to nurture her love of learning, it would be a shame for her to get "bored" with learning before even starting formal education.
TOTALLY just my opinion, you will make the right decision, just wanted to get 2 cents in from a past educator.
Knock, Knock...anyone home;)
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