Yellow Dots?

My daughter is in Kindergarden this year, and things have changed a lot since I was in school. And honestly that was not that long ago. Or at least to me it was not.

Now after the Christmas break they do not have nap time anymore. That was the biggest thing. I was about floored. How can you take away Nap time from school. The children are already tired from getting up early, and by the time my daughter gets home from school she is beat and is going to bed at 6:30 or 7:00 every night. And the worst part, she wakes up at 6:00 or so every morning. NO MATTER what time she goes to bed. I have kept her up until 10:00 at night and she still is up by 6:30. OMG! I need my beauty rest, and for those that know me, I need all I can get, and I have been deprived for a while now.

The next thing... They do not have snack time anymore. WHAT!?!? Yeah you heard me right, there is no snack time in the school. At this time I bet you are thinking she goes to a private school, and no, she is in public school. So they no longer have snack time. That would not be so bad, but I think that it was helpful to keep the chilkdrens attention. Cause at home they eat all day long prety much so Kindergarden should have a snack or something near the afternoon sometime. Right now mu daughter has lunch at like 11:30 or something, then she goes until 3:00 and gets home at 3:10 or something. The joys of being a block away from school. As soon as she walks in the door from school, she is starving to death. She has to have a snack before we eat supper, a couple hours later. If there was a snack time at school sometime it may not be as bad. Not to mention school lunch is not near long enough to eat, talk with your friends, plan out who is playing what at recess, what you did the night before, who your new best friend is, and so on. There is a lot of important conversations that happen at lunch in school that you can only plan there. And then try to eat too.

Then the weirdest thing this year is that all the kids in the class have "Trucks" on the wall. Each day they all start on the green line. If one of the students does something they should not, they have to move their truck to the yellow area. Meaning that they got in trouble. I like the idea, but the rules for Kindergardeners have gotten a little crazy. Running in the hall, which we all know that happens... and often. If they do... instant Yellow. talking to a friend when they have been told to work, does not matter the conversation, instant yellow. Say you need a tissue, and the teacher inspects it afterward and there was nothing in the tissue... yellow.

So... my daughter has been getting yellow dots on a daily report that comes home. That indicates that she did something in class that she should not have, and she had to move her truck. Most of the time it is Talking, or not following directions.

I am sorry... but a 5/6 year old child has a short attention span. Most can be considered having ADD. And for kindergarden to be the same as my 2nd grade class's that is a bit much. I admire the schools for wanting to give the children a better education at an early age. That is great, however if they overload the kids at an early age, it seems to me that the kids could feel too much pressure and want to quit school or stop caring. For Kindergarden students to come homew with homework each day, and over the weekends to read books, practice spelling, and telling time... That is a little much in my opinion.

So, at times we do not punish our daughter for the yellow dots, cause some times they are understandable, or rediculous.

What happend to the Kindergarden I use to know?

Making stuff with paper plates, cotton balls, and elmers glue
Eating the glue
Watching Reading Rainbow (With Lavar Burton)
learning the letters
Counting
Learning to color INSIDE the lines
Eating the crayons when you are done coloring inside the lines
Play time
Nap time
Recess
Snack time

We did not get no "Yellow Dots" or "Red Dots". we got a piece of paper from the teacher saying to attend detention and to have the parents sign it. Or a call home to your parents from the teacher or owrse the principal saying what had happened that day. And there was no way to know when the call would come, so it was nearly impossible to intercept it. Or if it was bad enough the parents would get a call at work, saying to come get their kids. I never had that happen, and that was mostly in highschool, but I can never remember any goofy yellow dots or something along those lines. That would be like tiem out for me.... Yeah... Whatever! LOL!!! My daughter or son on the otherhand, timeout is worse than spanking them at times.

It seems to me more like a prison now than the fun place it use to be. I always enjoyed going to school, with the exception of running the mile in Gym. And I hardly ever missed any school, other than the days that we were running the mile in gym. And I would look for the drop out rates to increase in school over the next few years if the school ciriculum stays the same as it is now through all the schools, and all grades.

Luckily my daughter does enjoy school for the most part and never wants to miss school. I hope that sticks with her through the duration of her school years. My son will be starting Pre0K next year... God help the teachers...