Welcome Back To Kinder

A friend of mine just announced they’re expecting their third child 11 years after their oldest. My initial reaction was WHAT!!! Then I was excited, and then I realized she was going to have to go through preschool and Kinder, AGAIN! I loathed preschool, not the schools, not the friends we made, just the three years of sickness and chaos that comes with preschool parenting. It’s not fun! I am one of those parents who keeps their kids home when there is a pandemic popping up at school. Now, I am not saying I was 100% on the ball; my kids were sent to the office sick once or twice.

Now to be completely honest I do love kinder and all its pomp and circumstance. The best part of kinder has to be, seeing your children blossom between kinder and first grade. The hard part of Kinder is the half day scenario that most districts have implemented due to the lack of space on most campuses. Going from a preschool environment where your child more than likely was almost a full day student to a half day, sucks big time.

This is our second foray into kindergarten, and luckily we were able to snap up our oldest kinder teacher for one of t the twins. I love this teacher because I get this teacher. She may not be every parent's cup of tea, but the kids do love her, and she has such command over them in such a large classroom. In our district, our kinder classes can run between a class size of 22 to 25. Right now we are running just below 24. Over the last 8 1/2 years that our eldest has been in school, we’ve learned a lot from our friends who have twins. The number one lesson is to treat your twins like they are individuals and be aware when they depend on each other too much. The second lesson was separate them no matter how hard it was on your schedule when it came to conference week.

With the twin four months into kinder, we are so appreciative that we chose to keep them in two separate classes. We’ve already powered through the first round of conferences and luckily for us, this year it was all in one school. One parent over the summer scoffed at me when I said we were keeping them separate, I responded by asking why did they think it was a bad idea and the answer I received, it was expected. To them, it was too many responsibilities in volunteering in both classes. That’s the exact reason why I wanted them in separate classes. My kids are two different beings with two separate personalities and needs. Having them fight over me while I am in class for 2 to 3 hours doesn’t make any sense.

The advantage of doing kinder all over again is knowing the ropes. I am a room parent this time around but only for one kid's class. I plan to do the others next year. You also are aware of all the trick and requirements of the students throughout the year. One such perk to be on the lookout for are the apps kids have access to at school that helps them with reading and math. The one I love and still swear taught my oldest to read is Lexia Core 5. Now I know some of you are screaming at the screen, NO CORE!!! Relax it’s not the kind of core you are thinking. This reading and grammar program is a real help to not only parents and student but the teachers. What is interesting is the recent news that our district is pushing towards a no-homework model for the elementary level. I am still trying to wrap my head around that one. Don’t get me started.

I digress. Shortened schedule aside, I do love the kinder year and thank the stars that it’s only for one year. Kinder is a lot of volunteering and awareness of your student. The goal of kinder is really to get your student reading and grasping basic math skills. Halfway through the year, the twins are pretty close to being fluent in addition and dabbling in subtraction. Reading has been an area that we have been focusing more and more on sight words and builds sounds of compound words. The twins are pretty much at the same level of Paley. Margot has shown signs of staying focused is a challenge at times but she still able to recover when she’s in a difficult moment. She and Lochlan are still sponges when it comes to learning. Let's see what I think when we end the year and move onto first grade.