My rant for the day

[faith 0]

So this morning (which is monday and horrible enough for me) starts off with me taking the kiddos to school. Now every morning I stand out on the playground with my first grader (by his choice, he'd rather have me there to say goodbye as the bell rings) and wait for the teacher to call them inside. So we're standing there and the other kids are all showing off their leprechaun traps that they had made. (He told me that they were supposed to make one, but as it is policy that all assignments are written down on the sheets that go home everyday, and there was NOTHING about it, so we told him that he didn't have to do it. In fact, I consulted with another mom and she said the same thing, there was nothing about it in the bag, how are we supposed to know what to do?) One kid tells him, "Nick, the teacher told us to make one so you're going to be in trouble." So guess what? Nick starts crying. (No big surprise there).

So we get up to the door and I ask the teacher "Did I miss a note about this trap thing?" She says "No, it's going home today" I said "Well, Nick's upset because all the other kids made one and he thinks he's going to be in trouble." She looks at him and says "Nick you should know better." Well Nick starts crying again. (Now earlier this year we had some trouble with Nick crying in the mornings at school because he doesn't want to go. He doesn't want to go because he is having problems reading. We resolved all that by having a routine in the morning. 3 kisses to me, and 3 to my baby-belly and he's fine.) when he started crying, his teacher grabbed his arm and pulled him inside (gently, I didn't see it as abuse or anything) and said "That's it, Nick, come inside now." So he goes in crying because he was a) already upset and b ) we didn't get our kisses.

Keep in mind the teachers are always telling me "oh nick's such a great kid. he just struggles with reading. oh what a good boy" etc etc. But I feel like they just have no patience for the fact that I stay out with him until the bell rings and that he has to kiss me goodbye. Then the way they told him that he should know better, well that just ticked me off because they don't feel he knows well enough as to what he is supposed to be doing after school (he has tutoring 2 days per week and gets picked up from his dad one day and we have to have a note every week saying how the pick ups go because the teachers can't get it straight. Plus, one day we had him ride the bus home instead of to the sitters and they wouldn't let him get off the bus because they didn't believe him. So tell me, how should he have known better about this if they don't think he or my 11 year old know better about their schedules?)

So THEN Johnny goes and picks Nick up today from school and guess what? The note's in the backpack and it says the assignment is OPTIONAL! OPTIONAL! They couldn't have told the kids that on friday? They couldn't have said that to me this morning? GRRRRRRR

Edited March 13, 2006 by faith

[almaty 19]

that is just wrong..Faith..i do not blame you for being upset.....

[Dixie_Peach 1]

awwwwwwwww... bless his heart... he sounds like such a precious little thing... hope that his day got better!!!

[Fuzzness 2]

Send a note to your county board of education requesting an explanation for this sort of behaviour. I wouldn't tolerate it. These people are supposed to be educators.

[MaryandMian 1]

Faith sorry to hear of the rough Monday start with Nick. I know how you feel but I can also relate to the school with the written notices of where the kids are going and whom is in charge. We have had incidences where divorced parents have taken a child and the school were not any wiser until it was too late and ended up being kidnap issues. So try and understand that point of view too.

Now I hope he has a better week and things so more smoothly. Hate to see a little one with a broken heart.

Mary

[faith 0]

thanks.

apparently he was in a good mood when he got home, so it didn't bother him all day.

I guess I wouldn't be so ticked if it hadn't been for all the other stuff that's gone on. He was in reading recovery, and still is doing poorly with reading, and yet they dismissed him from reading recovery after 18 weeks because that's policy. So he's getting left behind and they don't seem to care.

The thing is, it's not the school or the system with the attitude.. it's just his teachers. They seem to have given up on him because he struggles and can't stand it when they see that he's with me in the morning. I'm not sorry, I'm going to enjoy Nick wanting me there as long as possible... pretty soon he won't want me there or want to kiss me goodbye in front of his friends!

Faith sorry to hear of the rough Monday start with Nick. I know how you feel but I can also relate to the school with the written notices of where the kids are going and whom is in charge. We have had incidences where divorced parents have taken a child and the school were not any wiser until it was too late and ended up being kidnap issues. So try and understand that point of view too.

Now I hope he has a better week and things so more smoothly. Hate to see a little one with a broken heart.

Mary

Actually, we have a list that HAS to be on file with the school of all authorized people to pick up the kids. I have me, my hubby, my ex, my dad, the babysitter, and my two best friends on the list. But if anyone is going to pick him up but me I have to write a note. I just don't see the purpose of the list at that point. And I forgot to mention that I have to write these notes twice per week "because the teacher lost it". It just is getting old, that's all. And the tutoring is done thru the school by a teacher.. you'd think they could remember when he has their own programs.

Edited March 13, 2006 by faith

[babybunny 2]

I am the BIGGEST cry baby on the planet.

tell nick to slide over. I was crying today while looking around in my classes. I am scared of math.

[faith 0]

I am the BIGGEST cry baby on the planet.

tell nick to slide over. I was crying today while looking around in my classes. I am scared of math.

[m_and_m20 0]

Im sorry about your monday hun!

Im so going to be a pain in the a$$ mom when my kids are in school, cause i dont think i could tolerate that! I would seriously have a talk with that teacher...one on one!

[faith 0]

Im sorry about your monday hun!

Im so going to be a pain in the a$$ mom when my kids are in school, cause i dont think i could tolerate that! I would seriously have a talk with that teacher...one on one!

he has two teachers and trust me... they haven't heard the end of this. I'm going to go talk to Mrs. B (the principal, who I know very well) and tell her that I am concerned about this issue. Then if that doesn't stop things we're going to the superintendent (who I also know well) and taking it up with him. I'm not the mom to mess with

And we're doing the assignment btw.. we're taking a killian's bottle, emptying and cleaning it out... putting a new label on it that says "leprechaun rootbeer" that suspiciously looks like a killian's label, and sticking a piece of sticky gum in the bottle as a "trap".

[moondancer627 0]

The Leperchaun Trap, the kindergarteners were doing it at our school. I like your idea...

I am sorry to hear about your frustration with Nick's reading. It's not right that they have taken him out of the remedial reading when he's not ready and I am sure you are trying to help him out as much as possible.

I have worked in childcare 18+ years and I know how teachers have to deal with all sorts of stuff.

My only suggestions are to keep on working with him at home, have him read easy readers to you at night, read, read, read to him, have him read cereal boxes at breakfast, billboards while driving, make it fun and a game and just keep on encouraging him with the other subjects that he excels at..

Good Luck,

Moondancer

[MrMrsKnight 0]

Being treated like that in school can cause some serious damage that you'll only see when he grows up.

I say this because I know people that are really close to me that developed disorders that started in school, and struggled to have a normal adult social life.

You should seriously talk to someone about it and report their behavior to the county board.

Good luck to you!!

[faith 0]

The Leperchaun Trap, the kindergarteners were doing it at our school. I like your idea...

I am sorry to hear about your frustration with Nick's reading. It's not right that they have taken him out of the remedial reading when he's not ready and I am sure you are trying to help him out as much as possible.

I have worked in childcare 18+ years and I know how teachers have to deal with all sorts of stuff.

My only suggestions are to keep on working with him at home, have him read easy readers to you at night, read, read, read to him, have him read cereal boxes at breakfast, billboards while driving, make it fun and a game and just keep on encouraging him with the other subjects that he excels at..

Good Luck,

Moondancer

thanks I taught reading to 2nd graders who were non readers, so we use most of my techniques that I used with them with my son. He's made incredible progress, but he's not up to where his teachers would like him to be. (Which I have a problem with.. I've read his stories in his reading book... it's WAY above what a first grader should test out at for reading). He reads me the guide on the satelite alot... and he tries to read all the signs on the road. Part of his problem is that he wants to read what his brother is reading, and his brother is 11...so that's not happening. we finally got him to agree to let us buy him $50 of books on his level at Borders. When he can read them all without struggling we'll go get more on the next level. It's an incentive thing that's working for us pretty good.

I guess my issues are with the way we do things at the school. When I was a kid, there were 3 reading groups that we split up into.. the advanced group (kids like me that could read way above the reading level), the middle level (the kids on target) and the lower level (the kids that are behind). It gave the kids a chance to have classroom time on their level by splitting the class up with the other first grades. However, we don't do that in our school. I asked Nick once what happens while they are having "reading time" out of their readers. He says that he is and another kid never finish and then he misses the paper related to the story because he wasn't done. So it really feels like he's getting left behind.

You know it's bad when your kid says "Mom can I go to Sylvan? I want to read like the boy in the commercial."

Being treated like that in school can cause some serious damage that you'll only see when he grows up.

I say this because I know people that are really close to me that developed disorders that started in school, and struggled to have a normal adult social life.

You should seriously talk to someone about it and report their behavior to the county board.

Good luck to you!!

Yeah we realize what an issue this can be. Although, his social skills are not suffering at all. Seriously, my kid is a little stud boy. All the little girls call him because they like him and all the boys flock around him because they want to all play with him. He's VERY well adjusted when it comes to that. I just don't want him to develop a school hatred or phobia at the age of 6!!!

[babybunny 2]

Being treated like that in school can cause some serious damage that you'll only see when he grows up.

I say this because I know people that are really close to me that developed disorders that started in school, and struggled to have a normal adult social life.

You should seriously talk to someone about it and report their behavior to the county board.

Good luck to you!!

I agree. see I am still a cry baby.

[faith 0]

Being treated like that in school can cause some serious damage that you'll only see when he grows up.

I say this because I know people that are really close to me that developed disorders that started in school, and struggled to have a normal adult social life.

You should seriously talk to someone about it and report their behavior to the county board.

Good luck to you!!

I agree. see I am still a cry baby.

what would i do without you guys to make me laugh?