This is kinda sad.

[Rubia Warren]

I went to parent teacher conferences at school today, and my daughter's teacher and I were talking about my daughter. Sometimes I just feel like I don't do enough to try to help her learn, and then I sit around and obsess that maybe she's like, the stupidest kid in class, and everybody else is way more advanced than she is because their parents are better than me, etc. etc.
I was shocked to hear that she is actually one of the best students in the class- not because I think she's stupid, but just cuz I don't think I have done a good job.
This is the sad part:
there are about 4 or 5 children in her class who until school started had never used a pair of scissors before.
They still don't know how to color in the lines and neatly in the first grade because they were never given coloring books to play with at home as preschoolers and toddlers.
And before they entered school, they had never been read to at all ever by their parents.


I was raised by a mom who always read to us every day, and my brother and I both read before the age of 4, and we both still love to read.
I can't imagine my parents never reading to me.
I can't imagine never knowing until the age of 6 what it was like to cut things with scissors.
And to top it all of:
I can't imagine a childhood without coloring and activity books to color in!
As I looked on the wall at all the kids' papers and projects, I felt so bad for these little kids. Their handwriting was awful- almost unintelligible, and everything was written wrong and spelled wrong. My heart felt sad, as I tried to imagine growing up without any crayolas, and spending that time instead in front of a tv or a video game.

[Stephen]

I felt so bad for these little kids. Their handwriting was awful- almost unintelligible, and everything was written wrong and spelled wrong. My heart felt sad, as I tried to imagine growing up without any crayolas, and spending that time instead in front of a tv or a video game.

How'd you get my report card?

[Bob's Wife Gail]

"I went to parent teacher conferences at school today, and my daughter's teacher and I were talking about my daughter. Sometimes I just feel like I don't do enough to try to help her learn, and then I sit around and obsess that maybe she's like, the stupidest kid in class, and everybody else is way more advanced than she is because their parents are better than me, etc. etc."

Oh, r00bz, don't ever think like that about your child or yourself! You care and do what you can to help your daughter learn. It's obviously working. But it is so important that your daughter knows that you are confident that she can and will be successful in school. Kids try to live up to their parents' expectations. It sure sounds like she is off to a good start.

Like you, I can't imagine being a child and never having crayons or a coloring book, never using scissors, and never having a parent read to me. That is so sad.

[Sher]

R00bz, every mother worth her salt thinks this way at one point or another ... sometimes frequently. If you didn't care, you'd ignore the conferences and your child would exhibit signs of neglect. Try not to be too hard on yourself. You are obviously doing something right

[elysian]

I can't imagine never knowing until the age of 6 what it was like to cut things with scissors.

I was so paranoid with my son (now age 12, and fascinated by guns, knives, anything with an internal combustion engine, and fire, so much so that I watch him for signs of the Homicidal Triad- so far no bed wetting, animal torture or indiscriminate fire starting, but I watch) that I only let him have plastic scissors because I was afraid he would cut himself. His second day of kindergarten he tells me, "Mom, they let me cut with metal scissors. Plastic scissors suck." Somehow he made it through kindergarten without any trips to the ER.

Then when he gets in first grade, another boy decides to stomp on his head, somehow manages to catch his ear with a boot and I had to take my son to Children's Hospital to have his ear sewn back on. Be very afraid of the other children... in second grade he and his buddies were horsing about on the ice and a fat boy landed on him and broke his arm...which because my son is stubborn and didn't want to be forbidden to play in the snow...he acted like nothing was wrong. It didn't bruise or swell up. About a week later he complained his arm was "stiff." So we took him for x-rays. Both bones in his arm were broken, AND healing back wrong so he had to be put under general anasthetic to have his arm re-broken and set correctly.

Teachers have repeatedly told me that the kids whose parents routinely go to conferences, communicate with the teachers and are concerned with their kid's academic progress are NOT the kids who are at risk. The kids who are at risk are the ones whose parents don't give a hang- because they just assume their kids will end up drug-addicted and on welfare just like them.

Bottom line is if you're involved with your kid and you care about what he/she is doing in school and in life your child has a better start than 60-80% of the other little heathens.

[Sher]

11-11-2003 @ 09:38 AM post located here
elysian:


Bottom line is if you're involved with your kid and you care about what he/she is doing in school and in life your child has a better start than 60-80% of the other little heathens.

Amen and amen