Kindergarten is rough. It was a tough week for everyone involved. The parents dropping them off cried the first day which made me cry too. It was sad! All those teeny, tiny people marching away from their mamas. You’d have to be made of stone not to have a little sympathy.
Then the teachers had the monumental task of turning scatter-brained free spirits into a class. The list of basics took a full three days.
They had to teach them how to stand in, and follow, a line. That’s apparently a huge and difficult concept. They don’t understand WHY they have to follow the line. Why can’t they just run ahead? What’s the point to all of this?
The kids had to learn to go to the bathroom when they don’t necessarily HAVE to before lunch and Specials classes. This has to happen or they interrupt those periods by running out to pee. And peeing is contagious. If one goes, they all have to go and that destroys lunch time or the Specialist teachers’ lesson plans. So kindergarteners have to learn to line up to pee when they don’t have to go. Big stuff.
Lunch is very, very hard. All day kindergarten necessitates that we feed them, which is a bummer. Try taking a group of hungry cats down a hall and into a lunch room and arrange them in an organized fashion around a table. We don’t even give them a recess time at lunch because it takes a full 30 minutes to get them to the cafeteria, through the hot lunch line and to a table where they eat
Then the teachers had the monumental task of turning scatter-brained free spirits into a class. The list of basics took a full three days.
They had to teach them how to stand in, and follow, a line. That’s apparently a huge and difficult concept. They don’t understand WHY they have to follow the line. Why can’t they just run ahead? What’s the point to all of this?
The kids had to learn to go to the bathroom when they don’t necessarily HAVE to before lunch and Specials classes. This has to happen or they interrupt those periods by running out to pee. And peeing is contagious. If one goes, they all have to go and that destroys lunch time or the Specialist teachers’ lesson plans. So kindergarteners have to learn to line up to pee when they don’t have to go. Big stuff.
Lunch is very, very hard. All day kindergarten necessitates that we feed them, which is a bummer. Try taking a group of hungry cats down a hall and into a lunch room and arrange them in an organized fashion around a table. We don’t even give them a recess time at lunch because it takes a full 30 minutes to get them to the cafeteria, through the hot lunch line and to a table where they eat
veeerrry
slooooowly
. They have to take their recesses in the morning and afternoon. I am so grateful that it is not my job to help open milks. Sadistic grown-ups designed those milk cartons. They are not designed for pudgy little fingers to open.
It turns out that you can’t nap when you want to in kindergarten. This blows the minds of some of them. The teachers do their best to keep them awake and active, but sometimes one will just keel over and you can’t wake them up for anything so you just have to let them lie where they fall until they wake up on their own. That’s actually pretty cute.
You have to stay ALL DAY! Even if you don’t want to. Even if you miss your mom. Even if you decide that this really isn’t your thing and you think that maybe you’ll just give up on the whole idea of “school.” Yesterday morning an adorable little girl was being walked to class by her big sister. As they got closer to her room, she started to struggle and finally broke free from her sister’s hand and ran for it. She went right by me and out the front door so I had to give chase. She was a fast little booger. Lucky for me, she’s short so I caught up about half way down the walk. I knelt down and asked her what was wrong and she cried and said she just didn’t want to go to school anymore. I empathized. Neither do I. I held out my hand and she came along calmly and I handed her off to the principal who walked her to her class.
I look at this year’s first graders who were just like this a year ago. They seem so tall and grown-up now and they all stand in lines and pee when they are told to and only very rarely fall asleep or run away, so there is hope. It can all be taught - and learned.
It turns out that you can’t nap when you want to in kindergarten. This blows the minds of some of them. The teachers do their best to keep them awake and active, but sometimes one will just keel over and you can’t wake them up for anything so you just have to let them lie where they fall until they wake up on their own. That’s actually pretty cute.
You have to stay ALL DAY! Even if you don’t want to. Even if you miss your mom. Even if you decide that this really isn’t your thing and you think that maybe you’ll just give up on the whole idea of “school.” Yesterday morning an adorable little girl was being walked to class by her big sister. As they got closer to her room, she started to struggle and finally broke free from her sister’s hand and ran for it. She went right by me and out the front door so I had to give chase. She was a fast little booger. Lucky for me, she’s short so I caught up about half way down the walk. I knelt down and asked her what was wrong and she cried and said she just didn’t want to go to school anymore. I empathized. Neither do I. I held out my hand and she came along calmly and I handed her off to the principal who walked her to her class.
I look at this year’s first graders who were just like this a year ago. They seem so tall and grown-up now and they all stand in lines and pee when they are told to and only very rarely fall asleep or run away, so there is hope. It can all be taught - and learned.
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