Kindergarten Anxiety

I’m having a really hard time with Cameron being in Kindergarten. Not like many moms who miss their dear 5 year old. I adore my child and love spending time with him, but I love that he’s in school and “learning.”

These are the things I’m having a hard time with:

1. Unlike at preschool, you don’t get to walk them to their classroom and pick them up, chat with the teacher, look at what’s happening in their surroundings, etc. I HATE not knowing what’s going on. Except for the fact that they’ve been reviewing their colors each day (which I personally think is intro preschool stuff), they make pictures during “quiet time” and they seem to have a coloring page each day, I don’t know what’s happening. I ask Cameron what they did ,and he tells me they “played games.” When I asked what the teacher was doing, he said, “Just hanging out.” Now mind you, he’s a five year old boy, so I take what he says with a grain of salt, but I haven’t seen anything I consider “real work” yet, and it would be nice if we received something telling us what was going on in class.

2.He didn’t get the teacher I wanted him to get. And the other full-day Kindergartners in our neighborhood have the teacher I wanted Cameron to get, so I can’t even talk with the moms about what’s going on in class.

3. Conferences are not until mid October, and I can’t wait that long to discuss at length (15 minutes) how my child is doing, what exactly it is that he’s doing, and if he’s being challenged. Because if he comes home merely doing the sounds of the letters, I’m going to flip. Cameron can read first reader books and always is trying to spell words, and I don’t want to lose a whole year of potential learning so that he stays with the rest of the class. I had to push for an accelerated reading group last year in preschool, and that rarely happened. I hope I don’t have to jump through such hoops this year.

4. Cameron is still forgetting things each day. I write notes in the communication folder asking the teacher to make sure he’s coming home with particular items, and although she responds positively stating that she’d make sure he came home with the sweatshirt he left in gym class two days ago, he still comes home empty handed. He also forgot his library book that I was supposed to read to him, and he forgot his lunchbox (again). Melvin was home and drove him back to school this time. No TV and Computer for a full day is his consequence. Although this bums him out, I don’t think it will deter his forgetfulness. And since I don’t even know what the end of the day routine is like, I can’t even suggest to him ways he can remember what he needs.

Okay, it has only been a week, and so maybe I ought to give the teacher more time and not be this parent from hell. When I called her earlier this week to try to understand how my son was able to purchase chocolate milk for lunch when I never put any money in his account, she did tell me how much of a sweetheart he is, and how he always says “thank you,” which leads the other kids to say it.

But how long do I wait before I politely suggest that I was really hoping to see my son do more than just color in Kindergarten?