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September 02, 2009
A Week Later
So it has been a week, Monkey loves her school. Everyday MonkeyMama would ask her what she did at school, and she would happily say she played, colored, and had lunch. Once MonkeyMama asked her what she liked the best about school, Monkey said "To have fun."
I think school has been a pleasant experience for her. I think it is a good school for her. We picked this school, but until last week we weren't sure if this was a right decision.
We went to the orientation three weeks ago and met all the kindergarten teachers. We didn't know what to make of it except that we noticed that pretty much all the parents there were White. So there is a lack of diversity and it is pretty unusual in California. This is a public school by the way.
Then we went to the first class conference where we voted parents to the executive types of positions in the class. It looked to us like majority of moms (90%?) there were stay-at-home moms. A few of them were former teachers. And then there were families of 4 or 5 kids who all went to the same school and thus allowed the parents to be the most experienced and become the top officers in the class, because obviously they knew how things were done at the school.
Beyond all that, we got our fieldtrip schedule through December. It got us very excited. Monkey's first fieldtrip is to the Fairytale Town. She will then go visit Mondavi Center for Yamato: Drummers of Japan. Next she will go to a pumpkin farm, followed by Alpha Fired Arts. And then before the holidays, she will go see Pinocchio. We are surprised it is not Nutcracker, but Pinocchio is good. Anyway, we are thrilled about these fieldtrips and can't wait to go with her.
Last Friday when MonkeyMama was at school to drop off some forms, she stopped by the class to see what volunteer positions were available. She noticed that not too many parents signed up for Math, it got the best of her and she just couldn't resist not to.
After reading all these horror stories about kindergarten readiness, we are relieved to learn that none of the kids knows how to read yet. They are just learning alphabets now. I just feel that all the push for testing and assessment at this age is really too much. We just want Monkey to love school and to have fun. Life is a journey; going to a top university is not a destination. We don't want her to burn out before she is done with schooling.
Oh yeah, we had to replace her backpack because it got a hole on the bottom. Monkey was dragging it around; it didn't last long. Needless to say, we were unhappy.
Posted by Mike at September 2, 2009 10:43 PM
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