Dude. Not trying to be dramatic but I’m EXHAUSTED. Pre kindergarten we had a weird sleep schedule but it was doable, wake at 10, sleep around 10 and then I’m on my own till I sleep at 2. Now, it’s wake at 615, out the door by 7 and sleep at 8 and I would like to sleep at 10 but I need to sleep at 9 otherwise I am dead tired in the AM. So what’s y’all’s sleep like 🫠
Hey guys,
I’ve got a kindergartener and this is our first time, she finally got used to having lunch in school and we currently use the plastic Bentigo lunch box but want to switch to stainless steal. I ordered the stainless steal bentigo lunch box and a snack box but was disappointed with how difficult it is for her to open and close it.
Does anyone have any recommendations on a good kindergartener friendly stainless steal lunchbox ?
My daughter had her first day today. She seemed fine getting off the bus at first, but then immediately broke down into hysterics. She’s been home for 30 minutes now and hysterical the entire time. IS THIS NORMAL?
Idk what happened at school bc she won’t tell me anything but it sounds like nothing happened. She’s upset bc she wants to play with the neighbors (older kids- 4th and 5th grade) but they literally aren’t even outside. She’s crying that she “doesn’t want today to be a normal day” and “thought today was supposed to be fun” so I’m assuming some expectation she had of today was not met.
Idk what to do? She’s scream-crying. I suspect she’s just tired and overwhelmed but she’s been in daycare her whole life so a long day isn’t new.
Anyone else dealing with the same??
Hi! Daughter (5) is starting K next week. She has been to daycare for a few years now and brings her favorite stuffy with her. I am not sure she'll be allowed to bring this to school and it's probably for the best so it doesn't get lost. However, I'm worried about her not having anything to comfort her while at school. Anyone have any ideas or things that have helped their kids? Thanks!!
My child will turn 5 on September 19, 2028. Under California law, a child needs to be 5 by September 1 to start kindergarten that year. That means she would skip an entire year and be almost 6 by the time she starts. I’d prefer for her to start kindergarten when she is just a few weeks shy of turning 5.
I’ve read that some private schools are an exception to this rule and may allow children to start kindergarten at 4. Ideally, I’d love for her to continue attending private school throughout the rest of her academic years, but as you may know, private school is pretty expensive.
It may not be a big deal to many that I want her to be a year "early" vs a year "late" in the school year. Anyone has any advice? Private schools they recommend?
We live in the east bay.
I was really worried about this school year because my two kids (5 and 3) fight me tooth and nail when trying to get them out the door. It was so painful last year and I felt like a drill sergeant and mornings were so stressful. My cousin introduced me to a visual checklist and I found one on Amazon for like $8 that the kids can carry around. It has words and pictures so if your kid can't read yet, they can look at the picture to know which step comes next. My daughter also hates being told what to do, has mild ODD, and may have ADHD so she gets distracted easily, but now our mornings are a BREEZE. I'm so freaking happy. She loves her checklist and I even got one for my 3 year old, which isn't going quite as well because he's still little, but he's also been less resistant to the morning routine than normal.
Just wanted to share with all of you just in case you also need your kids to take responsibility for their own routines in the morning. You can make a checklist and laminate it and use a dry erase marker or they have a ton of different ones you can buy online.
I need ideas on what to do with my 5 year old. She is on week two of kindergarten and she was sent to the vice principals office. I got a long email from her stating that the last day she has been disrespectful and snappy with staff when they try to line and things like that. She was told to get in line and she said no then when she was told again she said she was in line when she was not. Then later that day at recess she was upset because a girl said she didn’t want to be her friend so then in class she threw down her chair and apparently hit the girl as well. I’m very upset about the situation. I picked some toys for her and made her physically throw them in the recycle. Initially she was upset about the toys but then she said they’re old anyway. She not allowed to watch tv this week. Can any seasoned parent please give me some advice on what I can do? She is a great kid but she also very stubborn. I don’t want this to be a continue issue
Soooo 3 days in & im feeling very annoyed
Keep in mind my son is one of the few non white students…
So yes I’m keeping my eyes open for any and all red flags
My son steps off the bus, and I can instantly see he has peed on himself at school (he confirmed)
& As we are walking home (about 4 minutes) he can’t hold his pee, and pees before we even get into our home.
Accidents are normal. But he has a change of clothing in school. So my concern is no one noticed for hours.
He also mentioned that he hit his head on the first day of school twice on the playground, and was crying both times. But the adults were far. He later showed me where. He was on the playground, and the supervising adult must have been alongside the school building.
I mentioned it to the teacher, she said she would reach out to the adult who was supervising. But I haven’t heard anything about it since. It stuck with my son because he asked me to still take him to school on the second day. And was mentioning it the morning of.
Drop your advice. As a mama & w former teacher I am not happy…
I have reached out to the school, requesting a callback & dad is going to send a email I guess.
But this is day 3, they stated they will have extra hands on deck. So I’m not sure where that comes into play…
We have a son who turned 5 in late June. He attended half day partial week preschool the past 2 years and will be starting kindergarten next week at a small Christian school (so only 12 kids in his class with a teacher and assistant ).
He has been in occupational therapy for fine motor development for a while and has made great strides. He reads, loves listening to stories/audiobooks, he is super curious, social, and adventurous. His preschool teachers enthusiastically encouraged us to send him to kindergarten.
However, I’m seeing many parents of summer birthday boys are red shirting their children and waiting another year to send them to kindergarten.
Is this a recent trend? Is it really happening more or is social media making it seem like it’s more common than it really is?
Just curious.
We are only 5 days into the new school year and we are already sick. 😭 A cold, I'm assuming. But if this is any indication of how sick season is gonna be, idk if we are gonna make it. Last year we had everything from strep, to potentially Covid, flu a & b 1 month apart. We've been fine all summer and 1st week back, my whole household is sick. Prayers and positive vibes for us all! Stay healthy everyone. 🤞
This is my kindergarteners daily schedule. I feel as though it’s too much in one day, how are they expecting them to hold on to this information??
Here is a breakdown of our daily schedule:
7:30–7:55 Arrival/Breakfast
7:55–8:10 Morning Meeting
8:10–8:45 Reading & Vocabulary
8:45–9:25 Foundational Skills
9:25–9:50 Writing & Grammar
9:50–10:15 Reading Small Groups
10:15–10:30 Social Studies
10:35–11:05 Lunch
11:05–11:35 Recess
11:40–12:10 WIN Time (Flexible Grouping)
12:10–1:10 Math
1:10–1:35 Math Small Groups
1:40–2:25 Specials
2:30–3:00 Science
3:05–4:00 Dismissal
Yesterday was my daughter’s first day of kindergarten after her phase in days. She has always been such a phenomenal kid and is extremely bright. She got into a public magnet school where the kids have to test in and be at least in the 80th percentile in math, reading, and written expression. We’ve never had behavioral problems with her in the past and she attended a little Montessori half day school for a few years before entering kindergarten just now. When she was 2-3 she had some issues at school just with emotional regulation but never ever used her body to communicate with other kids (that I was told about at least). Her teachers have always adored her and she has big teacher’s pet energy.
Anyway, yesterday I get an email from her teacher saying there was an incident at school where she hit a friend on the chin. Context is she was wearing a chewy necklace (we have always kept one in her backpack since she’s a big chewer and will chew on pencils, marker caps etc so we have it just in case to redirect) and the other kid reached out for her necklace without asking and she responded by hitting them. They made her go to the counselor’s office to talk about how she needs to use her words not her hands to communicate with her friends and they moved her away from this kid as I guess their desks were next to each other.
When she got home we talked about it and she made an apology card for the friend and her consequence was no video games last night since that is her number 1 favorite thing to do right now. She was obviously very upset and emotional because we’ve never had to punish her like this before because we truly have never had any issues like this.
All that to say, is this normal? I know kindergarten is such a big step up and the days are long and it’s a brand new environment but I am now so on edge that something is going to happen again and that she is going to be labeled a bad kid for this slip up.
I think I’m projecting a lot of my own feelings and anxieties onto this situation because I struggled a lot in school when I was younger due to having ADHD and was labeled a bad kid by quiet a few teachers because I had such a hard time not talking and attending in class.
I just want some unbiased opinions on if this is typical kindergarten behavior because I feel like this one tiny incident has made me spiral a bit.
my daughter is still a week out from her first day of Kindergarten and she is so excited!
my phone storage on the other hand is less excited. So far i have already downloaded four different apps (infinite canvas, dojo, here comes the bus, and givebacks) and made a few additional accounts on websites (the school district site and k12 payment center)
I honestly don’t know what all these apps do (except for here comes the bus, that one is pretty straightforward). but why do i need accounts in both givebacks and k12 payment center? both of those apps seem to have the exact same function?
and how much am i supposed to pay attention to dojo? what even is infinite canvas? my daughter doesn’t have her own device, is she going to be expected to have a personal device and to make her own accounts for different apps?
daycare/preschool used one app (brightwheel) for everything and that was so simple that i feel spoiled!
for other kindergarten parents, how many apps are you downloading?
This is very Canadian/Ontario-specific, so apologies if it’s not relevant to most people here! We’re starting to think about kindergarten and are torn between two options.
Our local English-language school is a really great community school. It’s close to us, seems to have a wonderful community vibe, and is generally very well regarded. The downside is that it only goes up to Grade 6, so our child would eventually have to switch schools.
Our other option is French Immersion. The FI school is slightly farther away, isn’t nearly as well “rated,” and from what we can tell doesn’t have quite the same strong community/neighbourhood feel as our local school.
The thing making this such a hard decision is that my husband and I both did French Immersion and are completely bilingual as adults, and we really value having that skill. French has helped both of us professionally, and I also feel like learning a second language so young made it much easier for me to pick up other languages later (Italian, in my case). I also think there are broader benefits in terms of how you think, learn, etc.
Our child is still young, but is extremely language-inclined, so French Immersion feels like something he would probably thrive in rather than struggle with.
I guess I’m wondering how other parents would weigh this: a genuinely great neighbourhood/community school vs. French community Immersion at a school that seems less impressive overall? For those who chose FI, do you feel the benefits of bilingualism were worth prioritizing over the “better” school environment? And for anyone who chose a great local school instead, did you ever regret giving up the opportunity for immersion?
I’m especially interested in hearing from Ontario/Canadian parents who have had to make a similar choice!
I've been thinking about how easy it is to label a kindergarten kid as SHY when they don't talk much during group activities. Then you see them during free choice or sitting with 1 other child and suddenly they're talking nonstop.
I've had kids who barely say 2 words during circle time but will tell me an entire story when we're walking somewhere together. It makes me wonder if some children aren't really shy at all. Maybe they just don't like performing in front of a whole room. I know every child is different but I've started paying more attention to where and when they actually choose to talk. Have other teachers noticed this difference too?
Hi everyone, my son is starting kindergarten this august and he is 3 months shy of turning 5. Our school district allowed his admission but now i have been thinking if starting my son before he turns 5 will benefit him vs delaying his start by next year when he will be 5 turning 6 three months after august start of school year.
Any parents who started their children early or late? What is your experience?
​
I am looking for a good brand of omega-3 fish oils for my 5 year old but I'm having a difficult time finding the right brand.
•Oil drops (no gummies)
•No added flavors or extra stuff
That's all I want. But finding a brand has been difficult
My five year old son is a really wonderful kid! He’s smart and funny and his dad and I are so proud of him.
He’s had a lot of changes recently. He was in daycare from the time he was four months old until May. We had a baby, his first sibling, in April. He was home with me from end of May-August since I was on leave.
As you can imagine, with a newborn, it was basically the Wild West for him around here. I did my best to prioritize him, so activities, take him places, have friends over or go to friends houses, but with a newborn it was a lot of solo play or screen time.
He has always been pretty strong willed. His daycare teachers would tell me if he didn’t want to do something or listen, sometimes he would really dig his feet in til the point of screaming. We see that at home too. Often times he just needs to cool his jets solo for a minute, and then he’s good to go.
This issue has gotten 10x worse the past couple weeks since school started. His teacher has reached out to say that when it’s time to practice writing, it results in a meltdown - screaming, stomping, kicking chairs.
She’s a great teacher. Doesn’t back down, makes him follow through, but obviously this is distracting for all the kids. At home, we can let him cool off and talk about better ways to handle his frustration. She doesn’t have the luxury of time to do that at school.
We are not permissive parents. We follow through with consequences and we reward positive behaviors.
I’m wondering if this is just him adjusting after a pretty lax summer and it will get better, or if there’s something else his teacher and us should be trying?
I’m trying to make his afternoons after school a little more structured. No tv until he practices writing his name once, either does his flash cards or practices counting, and reads four books with either me or his dad (all things the school wants him to be doing daily).
With a baby, me going back to work, him starting school… I am feeling a little stressed and just want to support my son, who I know is wonderful.
Any advice is welcome!
When I picked my Kindergartener and 4th Grader up from after school care, my kindergarten winced, and started hard-crying when he took his backpack off to get in the car. The 4th Grader told me he fell during his recess (about lunchtime) and hurt his arm.
His version of the story is that he fell off the monkey bars, had the wind knocked out of him, a friend helped him up and they walked to a teacher. He was crying hard and holding his arm and because it was only the 3rd day he had to be escorted to the nurse because he was new. — I do not know what happened at the Nurse. I don’t know her diagnostic measures. — but what I do know is that he was given an ice pack and sent back.
I dropped off the older kiddo and took him right to the Urgent Care/ER and they did X-Rays and confirmed he has a fractured clavicle (broken collerbone). Other than rest, a sling, and TLC not much to be done.
But the more I sit with this the madder I get that I was not called. I know not every nurse visit warrants a phone call. But a fall resulting in a visit, should in my opinion. Now I have a little guy in a dominant arm along for 3-4 weeks! He could barely navigate with two arms.
We didn’t get home from the ER until after 9pm, so I haven’t contacted the school. I will
First thing in the morning.
How would you proceed?
Hey Dads!
My daughter starts school in a few weeks, she’s nearly 3, and I will be doing the whole morning and school routine Monday to Friday.
I wanted to ask you for your advice on how best to do this time with her, especially since I’ll only see her for about an hour, maximum two hours, after I get home from work in the evenings.
I’m imagining things like not rushing her, but making sure she’s ready, has eaten a good breakfast etc etc. but I’m also wondering about things like how I can send her off to school with confidence every day, pep talks etc etc…
Many thanks!!