Kinder Orientation

Eddie started Kindergarden orientation this week (it lasts 2 weeks) and we did too. Everyone has always said you have to be an advocate for your child in the public school system, but we are learning first hand how many moving parts there are for a school aged kid (and this is just orientation). I can only imagine familes who do not have preschool experience.


These pictures are from today, Wednesday, 2 days after the start of kprep, when they were able to finally get him on a bus route. We're in a gray area where we could walk him to school as it's just over a mile, but they provide a bus and the neighborhood kids all like to ride the bus...they sent a letter the end of July saying bus routes were being finalized. I called last week because we hadn't heard anything about what time to be at the bus stop. Come to find out there was a mailing earlier in July that we never received that you had to opt in for transportation. The school said I was out of luck, so I called the transportation division of the school system and they said it would be no problem to work Eddie into the route, but that it would be Wednesday before he could ride the bus. The school had to offically request it though. Needless to say, the secretary and I have not started out on a good foot.


I figure I'm not in as bad of shape with the staff as my neighbor who is in the same boat with regard to not getting the bus transport form, but who got so frustrated with the school that she put her husband on the phone, and he escalated it to the principal.



There are 6 classes with what appears to be just under 18 kids/class. This is about what it will be like during the school year, with closer to 20 kids (the orientation is optional). His buddy down the street, Jake is in a different class, so it's been interesting to see on the first day Jake was sent home with a folder containing a welcome letter and a form to fill out. Eddie had nothing, except that they put an 's' on the end of his name, so it read 'Edwards'. The teacher said she'd correct it for the next day.


Tuesday came and she now spelled his name 'Eddy'. Eddie pointed out to her that this was not the correct spelling and she said she'd fix it. He came home yesterday with a worksheet he'd done where he was to cut out 3 squares, paste them in the windows of the bus and color the bus. He also had a popsicle stick with "Eddy" spelled on it that he said he was supposed to give the teacher to fix. My favorite though was the brochure from the school about how we could get him on the meal plan so he could buy food. It referenced an enclosed form which was of course not enclosed. They are serving breakfast and lunch during this program. Based on the menu, I'm not sure I want him buying the school food:
Monday's breakfast: trix, animal crackers, fruit juice and chocolate milk (apparently animal crackers count as a 'bread'). Today's breakfast is a breakfast bun plus, I can only imagine what that is going to be like. The lunches at least seem a little bit better. Jake came home on Tuesday with a letter inviting his mom to a mom sponsored meet n greet on Friday afternoon. Our folder didn't have that, so we'll see if it was only for Jake's class...


On Monday and Tuesday we walked Jake and Eddie to school. The first day took 30 minutes just to get them dropped off and settled in. We and the boys were fine, but we had to wait in line for 15 mintues for them to place a nametag on the kids, tell us what room to take him to and introduce him to the teacher. To be fair they also had to sort out all the kids getting off the buses, but wow. Plus, there was no security whatsoever. Considering the school is locked down like Fort Knox the rest of the school year, I found this interesting.


The bus was running late this morning, so we waited 20 minutes for it to come. There seems to have been a rash of kindergarden kids getting put on the wrong buses and then getting dropped off at the wrong place over the last year even though policies are supposed to be in place to prevent this. So, I made a low-key big fuss to Eddie that he needed to make sure he got on the bus #1 (displayed in several places) with this same driver, that he made sure his friend Jake was also on the bus. He is supposed to arrive home at 1:37. I will remain calm until about 1:45. My neighbor and I are hopeful we get the correct children back this afternoon because as Eddie got on the bus this morning and he got a 'bus #1' sticker, the driver cheerfully asked, 'Jake [last name]'. I corrected him and told him Jake was at the next stop. Come to find out at Jake's stop, the driver thought Jake was Eddie, so we'll see how this works out.



The two days we were 'walkers', Eddie kept saying he wanted me to drive him. He wondered if I would be able to get on the bus with him and ride to school with him. This morning he asked how long he would have to get to his seat before the bus started moving and I told him that it would wait until he was in his seat. He was definitely a little nervous (who could blame him), but there were no tears (from him), and he hopped right on the bus without hesitation. I still to this day remember getting on the bus for my first day of kindergarden and the bus driver, Mr. Jackson, commenting on me being so little, he wondered how I would climb the step to get on the bus. It was definitely a big first step, but it got easier each day.

I blacked out the name on the bus and the school name in the last picture, that is not grafitti on the bus.