Wow! First day down, only _______ left to go!! I don't even know how many!!! But today was certainly a success. Started out a little rough, but smoothed out nicely. :) You know, the typical things like "Ni'ke changing her clothes FOUR times and Ma-lak spilling an entire bowl of cereal over the kitchen table and floor and then there was the noise/excitement level that was hard to tame down... New year, same routine!!
This year the school sent out a letter requesting that the kindergarten parents stay ALL DAY with their kids to help transition them and help out at lunch time and also to see how a typical day would go. Since this is my fourth kindergarten "experience", I wasn't real keen on the idea of being there ALL day, but thankfully today was a minimum day and school let out at 12:20! I was actually glad that I stayed and could see how Ya'shar was going to do. He is of course a high energy little boy - not unlike his older brother - but was able to reel himself in after a look from his teacher if he got too cranked up. Mrs. Corwin is awesome!! She let me know today that she would be having some 1st graders in her class too, to accommodate the changes that have taken place in the system as a result of state budget cuts. And Rea's teacher was actually told just a few days ago that she would be teaching at a whole different school, and had to move her stuff across town in like a weekend, and barely was able to get her class room together in time!
I've been getting a better understanding the last couple years of how the teachers are doing, trying to cope with all these changes and I sympathize with the challenges they face to still be effective teachers in spite of a severe lack of resources. For example, I couldn't hardly believe my eyes when I looked at the school calendar for this school year, so many 3-4 day weekends, an entire WEEK off over Thanksgiving, and for the holiday break they are off Friday Dec 23rd and don't have to go back till Monday January 10th! At first you think, "Wow, that's great they have all this time off!" But then you realize that the teachers have fewer days available to them to still teach the children the same amount of work, if not MORE, because the children are as a whole doing worse every year. The teachers love the vacations, too, but feel the pressure to do more with less time in which to do it.
It's for these very reasons that Daryle and I almost made the decision to home school this year! In fact we DID actually enroll Ma-lak into a public home school program called K12 through California Virtual Acedemy and were planning to keep him home for a little trial run, but decided at sorta the last minute that that may not be the best thing to do. It would've been difficult with me working full time and Daryle taking classes himself this fall. We haven't ruled it out for future years, in fact they ALL may be home schooling next year unless we move to a different district, but for now they are all together and in school, and we feel good about the decision!
Rea told us that she looooves her teacher and thinks that just maybe she is the best teacher EVER! I reminded her that she says that every year about ALL of her teachers, and she said, "But I really mean it this time!" Ni'ke is so easy, too... She and Rea both. They're teachers call them "natural students" - the kind that never give them any trouble and just love school and everything that goes with it, and learn new things quickly. (Whew. Well at least we don't have to worry about HALF of them!)
Looking forward to a great school year, and hopefully each year will just get better and better! Please pray with me for all the teachers and faculty everywhere who play such an instrumental role in our childrens' lives, that they will have the time, tools, and resources they need to do their jobs to the best of their abilities, and that our children will thrive despite the challenges that are bound to come.
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