I was complaining a couple of weeks ago about the stupidity of the school schedule during parent-teacher conferences and I should have kept my fat trap shut because it has only gotten worse. I'm starting to think that whoever does the scheduling for my district is on some really good drugs. I wish they'd share because then this might make sense to me.
The entire month of November is screwed up. We will not have a single normal week for the whole month. It started during that first week with parent-teacher conferences. By day three of that schedule, I thought I was going to fall over in a heap. Everything felt so hectic.
The week after that we had our regularly scheduled once-a-month early dismissal Friday. I *hate* early dismissal days. Lunch is always super rushed because I have to shove it in really fast. Liam has to be at school at 11:30 and he gets home at 1:30 - so he's there right when he should be eating lunch but kindergarten doesn't get a lunch break so the kids just have to make do with early or late lunch at home and the regular snack at school. It just throws the whole day for a loop and I can't stand it.
That same week, Scot and I went to see Ben Folds which fell on a Thursday night - a night we would normally have been at the dojang. Since that wasn't going to work out, we took Liam to a class on Saturday morning to make up the class.
This week, Open House fell on a Tuesday. Again, this is a TKD night. So, once again, we had to skip class and we'll make it up on Saturday morning.
Next week is the real kick in the jewels, though. First, there's no school Thursday and Friday due to the Thanksgiving holiday. Second, the entire kindergarten is putting on a Thanksgiving puppet show on Wednesday. It's being held at 10:15 am and that means that all afternoon session students have to attend the morning session instead. I thought that meant a change in schedule on Wednesday only. Oh, how very wrong I was. In order for them to practice for the show, all sessions of kindergarten (that's 40 kids, folks) must attend morning kindergarten ALL THREE DAYS next week. I think I may just stab something.
I don't understand how the kids can be learning a damned thing with all these short days, schedule changes, days given over to show preparation, etc, etc, etc. There have been days when they've only been in the classroom for 45 minutes. WHAT IS THE POINT?! Couldn't they have spread some of this stuff out a little bit more? It's already beyond annoying to me that our district insists on half-day kindergarten in the first place, but cutting down on instructional time even further - and for an entire month - makes me stabbity.
I've said before that Liam is a creature of habit and routine is his saving grace. When routines are off, he has trouble adjusting. We do our best to help him through it and prepare him for upcoming changes, but we still end up with a kid in tears. On Saturday, while I was trying to get him ready for TKD, he broke down into tears about going. He loves going to TKD and to see him resisting to the point of tears was so unusual. When I asked him about it, he eventually came out with the fact that he is used to going at night instead of in the morning and that he was scared of not knowing anyone. Translation: I don't like this change in my routine, Mom. I worked through it with him and reassured him that there would be people there that he knew and he calmed down and by the time class was over, he was bouncy and happy.
Yesterday he cried and whined that he didn't want to go to school. Normally the kid is pushing me out the door, bouncing up and down, completely revved up to go to school. Yesterday he was upset, sullen, and all out rude to me. Obviously, I made him go and he was happy when he got home, but I have no idea how things went in the classroom yesterday.
The holidays are always a rough time of year anyway - with all the excitement and family plans and whatever else. But now school is pitching in and helping to make things so much worse. Anyone else have a kid like Liam? How do you prepare them for things like this?
My suggestion is to lay it all out for him. On a daily basis, talk with him about whatever the changes are for that day and their ramifications. So the day you are going out and he will miss TKD, explain that you & Scot need some time together and this is what you are doing, how this will change his schedule, etc. Talk it through with him. He's 5, so he should understand. Change is inevitable, so helping him to deal with schedule changes lays the foundation for being able to accept change later on. I have a feeling you are doing this already. :)
ReplyDeleteI don't really agree with what your school is doing, but the mayhem will only increase as they get older!