Mom to Mom

[happyplace2]

Thank you all for your time and help on this.

I think I was overreacting. They do have a long day. The teacher emailed me back right away saying all the right things. Now I'm surely "that Mom" - ugh - but I was willing to risk that.

I'll give her a Starbucks card and apologize and continue respecting her as I always have. Honestly, I never hovered. That was my second concern raised with her. The first was asking her to please remind my son to take his coat off. I'd see classroom pictures with him wearing his winter coat in school all day! Worked with my son on that too, of course.

And this is my first post. Love reading the Forums but only lurked 'til now. That's how worried I was. Many parents in my city won't even consider sending their children to public school and I couldn't sleep thinking I had been terribly wrong to trust ours. With my special snowflake.

Special thanks to the teachers who responded. You are great.

[ECBG]

Don't forget the contribution Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers made!

[Mominohio]

On 2/14/2015 colliegirls said:

This is not unusual, there is more than enough of instruction in kindergarten these days. Relax,don't sweat the small stuff, or it is going to be a long road to HS graduation.

I will offer up just the opposite advice.

Sweat it now, and get him to someplace that teaches and engages kids, not just keep them occupied.

Our public school systems in this area do not meet my standards, and I sacrificed a lot to keep him in private school. For me, a kid's education is every bit as important as their health, and their moral/value/religious training, and it begins in it's formal status in Kindergarten. If your child is bright, he will be bored before second grade, then the struggle will begin to keep him interested and achieving.

A school with high academic standards and a focus on hands on, student centered learning produces happy, bright, engaged, and advanced students. The right school can be so fun, they have no idea how much they are learning.

Most parents in this country are so lax in monitoring their child's education, and it is showing more every generation.

[Jaspersmom]

On 2/14/2015 wildcat fan said: I work in a public school. Did you know that one of the Commom Core Standards requires comparing/contrasting film to text? Sometimes we watch movies with the purpose of analyzing characters, themes, conflicts, figurative language, etc., because some students learn best through visual examples. No one should be showing films as rewards or filler activities, though. If you think this is the case, I encourage you to contact the teacher to find out the intent.

I have been an educator for more than forty years. Kindergarten is a full day in most locations. Five year olds have quite a bit of energy and sadly, they have few opportunities during the day to get rid of that excess energy. Playtime is nonexistent in many classrooms because of Common Core and outside recess has been limited this year in many of our colder areas. Showing a tv show or movie as a reward or filler is fine on occasion such as before a holiday break. Part of the problem with CCSS is we've forgotten our kids are just that - kids. Give the teacher a break.

[Trix]

Arthur may be a television show, but theres so much about each episode which a teacher can use to engage the children after they've watched. In fact, at the end of every episode there's a video of a real life classroom filmed doing just that. They discuss the episode, and if there is something in it which they reenact -- they do that too.

[ROMARY]

All we seemed to do in Kindergarten was finger paint. Well.......just maybe that's all I remember all of these years later. It was a very quiet and peaceful, relaxing time, though. It was a good way to transition youngsters into going to school. And I doubt that my mother would have known what we were doing, anyway.