When Did It All Change . . .

How are you're little ones settling in to the new year at school?

Tired? Maybe exhausted? Extra hungry? Maybe bringing home some extra attitude learnt at school? Lots of homework? Struggling to make the earlier starts during the week? Sick of making school lunches? Little ones struggling to fit in? Hard for them to make new friends? Kids don't like their new teacher? Workload too big for your kids? Wondering when school suddenly got so hard?

We've been through all these emotions and more in the last 3 and a half weeks.

Bradley has started his first year of pre-primary. So first time of full time school. All day every day. He's been tired. He's fallen asleep on his bed at 3pm. I've been jumping on him at 7am to wake him up.
But for the most part he has settled in quite well. Most of his kindy friends from last year are in the other class but he doesn't mind too much. He's made some new friends, he gets on with his work and at recess and lunch time he enjoys playing zombies and monsters with his friends from both pre primary classes. He came home and Friday and said to me "my teacher said I was a good role model today because I always pack away and do my work properly and listen when I'm on the mat" my heart sung with joy and pride.
He doesn't seem to mind his new teacher-although I'm not her biggest fan-and he really likes the education assistant in his class, she's lovely.
His teacher though, she's 50 trying to be 20. Parent information night was a chance for her to wear a short dress and show off her underwear and leg tattoos. Very unprofessional.
She gave a very simple talk about the "on entry" testing the kids do but basically said that no matter what their score or what areas they showed they were struggling in the kids would still be given the same work-she didn't say it quite as blunt as that but that's the gist of it.
Now I'm not the biggest fan of the education system in general. Because I'm a mum of a kid that learns differently and needs that extra help. So when a teacher tells us that all the kids will be given the same work regardless of ability I was quietly thankful that it was Bradley in her class and not Kaitlyn.

My poor Kaitlyn, though, is struggling with year 1 this year. Parent information night was a huge eye opener for me. The sheer volume of work that 6 year olds have to do is just mind boggling. The homework is insane: reading and spelling every single night and 4-5 activities per week. It's recommended to be 20-25 minutes PER NIGHT on homework (Bradley is expected to do 15mins per night for pre primary) For a 6 year old. Plus they do reading eggs and mathletics on computers that they could do (with a heavy emphasis on actually doing it) a couple times a week at home.
Thankfully Kaitlyn has a fantastic teacher. Parent night was a power point presentation with a different slide for each subjects guidelines. Plus rewards/consequences. Plus explaining homework, expectations, explaining the curriculum. He explained that each child would have different homework based on their abilities and some class activities would be slightly different based on ability.
Kaitlyn got her first lot of homework last night and came home with very basic flash cards and 'de-codable' books (books that use only a certain set of letters and each word and sentence is made up of only those letters) I really like these books. Last year in pre primary Kaitlyn was given books with repetitive sentences. Which were great for starting out but she memorised all the books and knew the flow of the sentences, so instead of actually reading, it was all just memorised. There wasn't much actual learning happening. I'm really happy with the way her teacher will be giving work and homework based on ability rather than the same work for everyone.
Every year I hope and pray that Kaitlyn gets a teacher that understands her and helps her. Someone that I can talk to and will support her.
So far we have managed this every year, we've been so lucky. I dread the year she gets a not so supportive teacher.

Out of all of the meetings and information and things I've heard about school this year the one biggest thing that has completely shocked me is how each different subject is taught.

In Bradley's class he has his normal classroom teacher for maths and English.
But he has a different teacher coming into his class room for: art, science, sport and social studies. Then he goes up to the library once a week with a different teacher.

In Kaitlyns class she has her normal classroom teacher for maths and English. But for science, social studies, computer, art, sport and library she has different teachers AND she moves around to DIFFERENT CLASSROOMS. Kind of like you do in high school.

When I commented on this to another parent the other day and how much the pre primary and year 1 students have different teachers and are even moving around to different classes for each subject she said to me "they are just preparing the kids for high school"

I'M SORRY BUT WHAT?? HIGH SCHOOL STARTS IN YEAR 7 NOT YEAR 1.
Why do 6 year olds need to start preparing now for something that won't happen for another 6 years!!!!!!

And even the pre primary's have different teachers. I guess they at least get to stay in the same classroom. But whatever happened to having one teacher that teaches all the subjects in primary school.

When I was in primary school (which really wasn't THAT long ago) we had our classroom teacher for maths, English, science, social studies and anything else we needed to be taught such as health. We went to library and music with a different teacher but our main teacher was the one spending the majority of time with us.
And when we made the move to high school the transition wasn't so bad. It only took a week or so to figure out where all the classes were and to adjust to moving from class to class.

Why then do such young kids need to start "preparing" now for what will happen in 6years.
If we could adjust in just 1 week-why do they need 6years!

My poor Kaitlyn has seen the enormous work load, she is very aware how far behind she is compared to the other kids and of course she's not coping with it.

Last week I was called up to the school during the day as Kaitlyn was in the office complaining of being sick. Little did I know she had been up there almost every day for a week and a half saying she was sick, or had hurt herself, she needed a bandaid, an ice pack etc etc. It seemed that whenever she was struggling to understand work or when it all got too much she was complaining and going up to the office to escape.
I was able to have a good chat to her and to the principal while I was there and we talked to Kaitlyn about asking for help or seeing the teacher if the work was too hard or she couldn't understand what was going on. Since then she hasn't been back up to the office.
But when I left the office last Tuesday I was absolutely gutted. I actually had tears streaming down my face as I walked out of the school.
How could I help my girl? What could I say or do to make her feel better? What else could I be doing at home to encourage her?
Sometimes it's so hard for me to accept that Kaitlyn is struggling. Ever since she was a toddler we have done activities at home, games, learning sounds, shapes, numbers, painting, drawing, making games, sight words. Over the years I have put so much time and effort in to her learning-and for Bradley as well. And I see Bradley thriving and learning so much and sometimes I feel like Kaitlyn hasn't learnt a single thing from all that time together.

I also found out that Kaitlyn had been making up excuses to the duty teachers at recess and lunch so that she could go and find Bradley in the pre primary play area. Being up in the big school this year means she's completely separated from her brother. And it seems there may be some separation anxiety on her behalf.

Homework last night was the typical disaster. Kaitlyn couldn't get the sounds right for a few words in the book: cue epic screaming meltdown. We didn't even make it through half the book (which was only 6 pages long with approx 15 words in the entire book). After the meltdown was over I went in to her room and laid on her bed and we talked.

I asked her how she was going, I explained that I wanted to help her. She told me the work was too hard for her. I told her I wanted to help her learn to read and write. She told me she doesn't like the work. I told her that if we could learn to read a few more words she would one day learn to read all those fabulous Barbie stories that she loves so much. I explained the whole 'practice makes perfect' thing and that I always wanted her to try her best. Even if she couldn't do something if she tried her best I would be so happy and so proud of her. She told me she wasn't trying her best that night, and maybe next time she would. We laid there for about 20-30minutes just talking. Trying to understand each other.

And then I left her to think things over while I did some reading with Bradley (who can read without even trying).

My poor Kaitlyn. Everything is so much harder for her. Nothing comes easy or very naturally for her. Every day is a struggle. A struggle to understand. To work 100times harder than any other student for a fraction of the results they get. To get up and join in with group activities. To push past and break down those barriers that hold her back.

But every single day of her life I'll fight for her, I'll fight with her and I'll love, help, support and encourage her because I'm her mum and if I don't fight for her, who will?