School Functions
By katsmeow1213
@katsmeow1213 (28717)
United States
September 17, 2008 7:23am CST
Last night was curriculum night at school. It's basically where you go and the teacher tells you their agenda, what the kids are learning in school, the goals for the year, and the teacher's basic methods for teaching, discipline, etc. Just a chance for the parents to learn about what the child will be doing in school this coming year.
Well, I have twins who are in the same grade, but seperate classes. Last year for Kindergarten they were in the same class, so it wasn't a huge deal, but this year they were split up.
It didn't help that one of my children had a soccer practice at the same time as the school function. So basically I had to be in 3 places at once, and my husband wasn't even supposed to be out of work yet. He should have been leaving work shortly after the school function started.
Oh, and I should mention the kids aren't allowed at the curriculum night because they are a distraction. It is for the parents and teachers only.
Now our particular school does the different grades at different times. Kindergarten was 6:30 till 7. First grade was 7 to 7:30 and Second grade was 7:30 till 8. The other grades did their function on a different night.
So how do parents handle these sorts of functions when they have 2 places to be at once? Two children in 2 seperate classes going on at the same time?
What I did was have my husband meet me at the soccer feild. He left work a bit early. He brought the kids home from soccer while I went to the school function 15 minutes early. I went and met my daughter's teacher and informed her I would not be staying for that curriculum, but got the paper work and a quick run down of what I'd be missing. I then spent the half hour in my son's classroom listening to his curriculum.
1 person likes this
4 responses
@Barb42 (4214)
• United States
17 Sep 08
Kats, you did the only thing you could do. I don't why schools think that parents are robots. But I suppose they have reasons for that. My daughter has always been in the same spot as you, but she doesn't even have a husband to help. She manages the job and 4 kids at school. Now two are out not in sports, so that helps tremendously.I also don't see why they separate twins. It's not harmful for them to LIVE together; why is it wrong for them to be in the same class? There were twin girls that went to school with me and they both were in the same classes all their life,unless they didn't take the same courses in high school. I don't see anything wrong with those two women.
@katsmeow1213 (28717)
• United States
17 Sep 08
I was given the choice in Kindergarten as to whether or not to seperate them and I chose not to, but I wasn't given the choice for first grade. But you know what? If I was given the choice I still would have split them up. They spend ALL their time together, we all enjoy the fact that they get a break from each other in school now.
@Barb42 (4214)
• United States
17 Sep 08
I never remember hearing until the past few years that you need to split up twins in school in order to give them their own identity. I don't remember the twins I grew up with every having an identity crisis. I remember them disagreeing with one another all the time - just two sisters that seemed just like the rest of us. Of course, if someone took on one of them, the other one kicked in, but they were still individuals, nevertheless.
@gemini_rose (16264)
•
17 Sep 08
You had a really busy night then! We have parents evenings for our children and it is just when we can see our childs teacher and get a run down on how they are doing, and where they can be improved. We receive a letter telling us what day it is on and whether we have more than one child in the school. I will then fill the details in of my two boys and the school arrange the appointments one after the other. We only get to see the teachers for about 5 minutes so it all works out really well and we are never in there long.
@katsmeow1213 (28717)
• United States
17 Sep 08
We call those Parent Teacher Confrences. We will do the first of those around November. Last night was more of an introductory thing. The teachers don't really know the children well enough to decide how they're doing or what needs improvement. Like I said, it's just a way for the parents to learn about what the child does in school.
@1grnthmb (2055)
• United States
18 Sep 08
There has to be a better way for them to do it. It was not so bad in elementary school as it is now that the kids are in high school. They make you go to all the kids classes in the order that your child has the classes. The problems is that we have three kids and there are only two of us. Second problem is that they have a five minute period to get between classes and with not knowing the school very well and the spread of the school it is really hard to do it. And on top of that I am handicapped and can not go that fast.
@katsmeow1213 (28717)
• United States
18 Sep 08
My oldest is in middle school, and I had to go through that. He had different classes we had to shuffle between and got 2 minutes to do it, but most of them were close by, and actually he has the same teachers a few different times of the day, so it was basically like going from one classroom to the next and back again. My problem was each class was only given 6 minutes to speak and I didn't feel like that was enough time to learn about the curriculum and agenda.
@lilybug (21107)
• United States
17 Sep 08
Only one of my kids is in school right now, so I have not had that problem yet. My son's school does not do that type of night. All we have is Open House which is kind of like meet the teacher night before school starts and parent teacher conferences and those are not until October.
@katsmeow1213 (28717)
• United States
17 Sep 08
We have an Open House towards the end of the school year, and that is basically where we just walk through the school and the classrooms during a particular time frame, but on no set schedule. The teachers put a lot of the kid's work up on the walls inside and outside the classroom. Our Open House is basically a night where we can see the progress our children have made through out the year.
