School Interview

Well this morning we had an interview at Kamryn's school with her new teacher. She has a morning teacher and an afternoon "early childhood education specialist" (read: daycare provider although they do do a little more than a daycare would). Both of them are named Julie. Too easy. She will attend school full-time but her afternoons are supposed to more play-based and focused almost exclusively on developnig language. This is because many of her classmates will be going to school in their second language and it is intended as a catch-up. My friend who has had her child already go through this program and is a teacher herself tells me in the end they end up well ahead of their peers in other programmes. This isn't why we are doing this but that's a nice fringe benefit I guess. We are enrolled in this programme because there isn't another option. All french language schools structure their pre-K and Kindergarten programmes this way.

So we had our first meeting this morning. Kamryn looked very cute in the same dress I sent her to preschool in and a nice white blouse with her new blue shoes (school shoes must be blue or black) and some aqua socks. I describe her outfit in such detail because:

a) I forgot my camera and took no pictures.
b) She was the only child in the school dressed that way - oops!

All the other children were in uniforms (school started yesterday for all grades except pre-K). The child who had the interview before Kamryn was wearing her uniform. The child who had the interview after Kamryn was wearing her uniform. Okay I figured that it was a 45 minute get to know you interview and that it didn't make much sense to waste a perfectly clean uniform on 45 minutes. I guess I fugred wrong. No one said anything though. * shrug * Although I guess there was a casual remark made to Kamryn with a quick glance at her delinquent parents that when she came for "real" next week she would be wearing her uniform.

Kamryn didn't really participate all that much in this interview. She played with a puzzle with ECE (early childhood ed ...) Julie while we met teacher Julie and then she joined us in the classroom and checked out the doll house and the play kitchen while we chatted with Julies squared.

We answered a host of VERY boring questions about Kamryn's completely typical development and generallly accomodating and independent nature. We smiled to ourselves as the Julies worried about Kamryn suffering any separation anxiety. Daniel commented later that he's pretty certain he could put Kamryn on a plane with a flight attendant she had never laid eyes on and leave her with no concerns. I we discussed her development I was waiting, hackles already up, indignant reply playing through my head about why they needed to know, for "is the child adopted." I know that for a lot of schools that is a standard question. It's not a secret, it's just not an appropriate question in my opinion. The question never came. All that choler wasted.

I found out that nap time is 12:15 - 1:00 (I think they nap instead of a noon recess but I didn't ask further). I'm thinking unless they REALLY work them in the morning there is no way Kamryn will nap during that period but I guess we'll see. I know she will want to nap before the school day is over. I also found out that she has 16 children in her class which is at least 4 fewer than I thought there would be and which makes me happy. It looks like one of her "friends" from preschool will be in her class which has its advantages in at least she will know someone else and its disadvantages in that the little girl isn't the best influence (if she is any influence at all) on Kamryn in my opinion again we will see.

The biggest revelation of the meeting was that school next Wednesday is ALL day. I though it started as a half day; I don't know where I got that idea. So she is right into it next Wednesday.

We found her cubby in which she stowed her shoes and her blanket for nap time. There are no other Kamryn's in Pre-K although there are at least two in Kindergarten (this we discovered by reading the names of all the children outside the various classrooms).

We talked a bit about their teaching methods and Kamryn's sometime reluctance to try new things and/or to give up immediately when encountering any difficulty or missing perfection on her first try. We also discussed Kamryn's tendancy towards excitability when pair with another child (she is quite calm without an audience/accomplice). Part of the educational approach is teaching children to work calmly and quietly on their own - oh that will teach her LOADS!

All in all a good meeting. Kamryn is now very excited to return to school. It feels nice to see her looking forward to it.