Well too bad I'm opinionated and I've got upset kids!
Today is 'What I Want To be' day at school.
The kids are encouraged to dress up as what they want to be when they grow up. They had to give a gold coin donation if they wanted to dress up.
So last night Kaitlyn, Bradley and I went through our dress up box and started thinking up costume ideas. Kaitlyn wants to be a stay at home mum and Bradley decided on a zookeeper.
I let the kids stay up late while we made name tags and even got Bradley a little portable zoo to go with his costume.
This morning the kids were up early and bounding around with excitement. They got dressed.
Kaitlyn with pregnant belly, baby on her hip, sunglasses, handbag, necklace and wedding ring.
Bradley had name tag, boots, zoo animals and flanno shirt.
Arrive at school and all the kids were a bundle of excitement. They had dressed up great and all paid their gold coin donation.
Some parents had put quite a bit of effort into the costumes.
I approached Kaitlyns teacher and asked if they were having the usual parade first up to show off their outfits (as they have had with any other dress up day) and was told she wasn't sure. She was a relief teacher so I left it at that.
Then I took Bradley down to his class and asked his teacher. The reply I got was "we do literacy first thing in the morning and we can't take any time away from learning. If the weather clears up the school might decide to let the kids do a 10minute parade right before recess, but that decision won't be made until a few minutes beforehand"
So that got me mad. Yes I know it may seem childish and stupid for me to be so angry but why would a school advertise and encourage the kids to spend time dressing up and paying money and putting time and effort into costumes, only for them to say 'oh sorry we can't possibly take our eyes off learning for 20minutes to let the kids have some fun'
Well excuse me but that's bullshit. No wonder kids don't want to go to school anymore.
All the kids were all so excited and energy levels were through the roof at drop off this morning, and now my kids are upset and disappointed that all their effort was for absolutely nothing. So what?! they wore a couple different clothes for the day! Big deal!
I made Bradley a fricken portable zoo!!! I made it so when he paraded around he could show off his cool costume and look like a cool zookeeper.
The other dress up days there have been parades and even prizes for best dressed, parents have been invited to stay for the parades, music has been played and the kids have enjoyed themselves, even if only for a short time.
But today, well these days kids are too busy learning, there is too much work and too much pressure for WA to 'catch up' to the rest of Australia so suddenly our kids are worked so hard and pushed almost to breaking point. Forced to learn, playtime (especially in kindy and pre primary) has been slashed so much, pushed to always succeed and now we take away the only bit of fun they have.
Why did I even bother putting all that effort into getting costumes and making name tags, giving Kaitlyn a pregnant belly. We had a blast last night getting costumes organised and while they might seem like simple costumes I'm so mad that my kids are upset-Kaitlyn said 'why did we dress up mum, there is no assembly' what a big fat disappointment.
Schools these days are pushing kids way too hard, taking all the fun out of learning and yet constantly telling parents that learning should be fun. So if learning should be fun why are you taking all the fun time and play time away from the kids?
Yeah that makes sense to me. . .
Stay at home mummy and zookeeper
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