What is one thing you wish you had known before the 1st day of school?

[Anonymous]

What is one thing you wish you had known or been prepared for before the first day of school last year?

For us, coming from a closely knit daycare, I wasn't quite prepared that parents weren't to be in the classroom for the first few months of school other than on orientation day. This was PK3 at HRPCS (p added for precious). I understand it now to have the children get in their routines and take ownership over being in school but it was quite nerve wracking at this time last year!

[Anonymous]

for ECE: that it was okay to not push my kid to complete her "homework" packets. Teachers send those home to complete every week, but for kids who have to stay in aftercare due to working parents' schedules, it's really hard to finish those while trying to stick to dinner and bedtime routines. My kid was exhausted and we pushed it until the teacher told us not to worry about it. That leniency seems to go away by kindergarten, though aftercare teachers made sure to have time every day for my kid to work on it there.

for all years: it's a continuous shock to our family system how crunched for time we are after a long day at school and aftercare. somehow it's harder than our summer schedule even though she's in camp all summer. it's all we can do to eat something, relax for 20 minutes, and then start the bedtime battles. do whatever you can to make your home life as easy to execute as possible (make dinners ahead of time, or decide that PB&J is a perfectly ok family dinner) because it's hard to pull it all together during the week.

[Anonymous]

How tired my child was going to be.

I thought, coming from daycare and being in daycare from early until late - she would be ready for the grind. School was really, really different. She was exahusted the first month.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How tired my child was going to be.

I thought, coming from daycare and being in daycare from early until late - she would be ready for the grind. School was really, really different. She was exahusted the first month.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:for ECE: that it was okay to not push my kid to complete her "homework" packets. Teachers send those home to complete every week, but for kids who have to stay in aftercare due to working parents' schedules, it's really hard to finish those while trying to stick to dinner and bedtime routines. My kid was exhausted and we pushed it until the teacher told us not to worry about it. That leniency seems to go away by kindergarten, though aftercare teachers made sure to have time every day for my kid to work on it there.

for all years: it's a continuous shock to our family system how crunched for time we are after a long day at school and aftercare. somehow it's harder than our summer schedule even though she's in camp all summer. it's all we can do to eat something, relax for 20 minutes, and then start the bedtime battles. do whatever you can to make your home life as easy to execute as possible (make dinners ahead of time, or decide that PB&J is a perfectly ok family dinner) because it's hard to pull it all together during the week.

What school requires homework for ECE?

[Anonymous]

Bump

[Anonymous]

We had homework in PK4.

I rarely did any of it.

[Anonymous]

To not expect communication from the teacher. It's just so different from daycare. No feedback on how DC was doing unless you seek it out (and even then, feeling like you are bothering the teacher).

How tired DC would be. My son craves downtime.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How tired my child was going to be.

I thought, coming from daycare and being in daycare from early until late - she would be ready for the grind. School was really, really different. She was exahusted the first month.

+1

Exactly. Technically the day is no longer BUT the added structure of a schedule pushed DS over the edge. He was good in school but for the first month or two he cried and whined all the way home. The longest 10 mins of the day.
It seems this is common. PreK was more free form.

Also I never expected it but DS CRIED when I tried to leave on the first day. It was really tough for both of us. He was OK up until about 5 min before the teacher came to get them and he said he was nervous and cried his little eyes out.

[Anonymous]

For me, it is not to trust the school to tell me important things about my child and to trust my instincts.

[Anonymous]

My DD is starting K this year. Thanks for the warnings. I'm trying hard to keep my cool.

[Anonymous]

Even in 1st grade there were weeks that the small homework packets were too much. DS is in extended care and if there were a bunch of school functions or practices or anything we didn't always get to everything. Sometimes he was just too tired. Our evenings are like PP and there seems to be no down time. The teacher was fine with trying whatever you can get to.

[Anonymous]

That the cafeteria situation prompted a lot of anxiety in our child. It's just a lot more people and a lot more noise than new kindergartners are used to.

[Anonymous]

That reminds me - that no one helps or monitors them in the lunch line. DS loved buying lunch and I stopped checking the online account daily a few months in. Around this time he got more comfortable and started buying lots of junk add ons every day instead of food. Cookies, ice cream, chocolate milk, juices. All would be ok in moderation but he would get 2 and not eat real food. When we found out he was back to bringing a lunch from home.

[Anonymous]

That the principal would have been willing to meet with me and help me choose a better teacher for my child, if I had emailed her. I didn't think she would care, so I didn't bother. Our year was miserable - it might have been avoided if I hadn't been so scared to ask for something for my child.