Last Day of School

Today is Ane’s last day of school – followed promptly by the arrival of Auntie Resiss, Little Cousin and Baby Cousin!

I’m actually sad that this is the last day. Mostly because now I’ve got to think of things to do to fill the time until school starts next fall. And because this is yet another “first” for her – she’s got a year of school under her belt now.

Overall, this year has been a pretty positive experience for her. She’s gotten along pretty well with her classmates, has learned quite a few social skills, and has gained an even stronger sense of independence (if that was even possible). She’s the kind of kid that will probably continue to love school, even if she does get in trouble every now and then for talking or for bossing the other kids around.

And now, a rant.

I don’t know why this is, but it seems that the parents of Ane’s classmates have been totally deaf when it comes to the teacher’s request that siblings NOT attend field trips.

The first field trip we took this school year was to the pumpkin patch, and siblings were welcome – so long as they paid the same per child fee that the students were required to. But after that, it seemed that there was no stopping it. The next field trip was to the pet store, and I seriously considered bringing Tad and keeping him in the stroller. I even asked Ane’s teacher about it, at which point she said, “No, we generally don’t want siblings to come along, because it detracts from the student’s enjoyment when the parent is busy watching another child.” She even wrote in the note home to the parents before the field trip, “Please do not bring siblings.”

Out of the nine children who came (we had eleven in the class this year), six brought siblings. SIX. One I’ll give a pass to, because one little girl has a baby brother who was born in February, so he was in a carrier or a Baby Bjorn, out of the way. But for the rest of them… two consistently bring OLDER siblings (who aren’t in school during that time), and the rest all have toddler siblings around or under age two.

Yesterday was field day for the class, and it was held at a local sports facility (owned by one of the kids’ parents). Out of ten students who were there, EIGHT had siblings with them. I’ll hand out two passes this time to the parents with small babies. But the two older siblings were there, along with all the toddlers who were in constant danger of getting hit by balls and getting run over by older kids.

Two families had both parents there, and they’d each brought a younger sibling. So, obviously, one parent could have stayed home with the younger child, but they chose not to.

I know that child care is obviously the issue here. Not everyone is as fortunate as we are to have a set of grandparents nearby who are willing and have the time to baby-sit. But it isn’t impossible to GET a baby-sitter, even if you have to call in favors and then be willing to watch someone else’s child in return.

If I’m going through the effort to make sure that I have a baby-sitter for Tad, then surely other parents can, too. But it’s clear that some of them don’t think it’s a big deal or simply don’t think that the teacher’s requests apply to them. And it annoys me greatly. Trust me, it’d be a LOT easier to bring Tad along than to detour and drop him off at my parents’ house. But I know that Tad is a monkey and unless I’m going to keep him in a stroller the whole time, he’s hard to control (though it is getting a bit better). I also know that Ane enjoys herself more because he’s NOT there. I can’t imagine the other kids are any different.

But what really aggravates me is that the teachers didn’t reinforce the request after it was ignored the first time. So I guess they got what they deserved yesterday, when they provided ice-cream sundaes to another six children, instead of just the ten students.

Okay, I’m done ranting. And don’t worry, I didn’t say anything out loud. But this is my blog, so I’m allowed to rant.

So, last day of school. One of Ane’s teachers is “retiring” – Ane did her in. Just kidding. She’s taught at the preschool for the last sixteen years, and is going to change careers from teaching to healthcare administration. She’s been very nice and Ane has enjoyed having her as a teacher. It will be interesting to see who Ane has for a teacher next year.

School’s out for summer! God help us all.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008 at 12:49 am and is filed under Children, School Days.
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