pre-school

[taks]

my son john, 4, begins his education odyssey today attending pre-school for the first time. actually, he's in pre-kindergarten at the local goddard school. john cried all weekend after we told him what was going to happen. well, he did the pouty face and cried this morning when we dropped him off. it was sad. surprisingly, momma wasn't all that heartbroken. she'll probably start to miss him as the day goes on, however. dinner tonight will be interesting.

 

taks

[Yuusha]

That's great. I have a one year old boy myself.

[theslug]

Poor kid. 12+ years of school sucks. When he's like 12 or so you should get him into Muay Thai/wrestling/etc. And make sure he reads alot and stuff so he's smart and a bad ass later on in life.

[Guard Dog]

Your little boy is growing up Taks. Before you know he will be borrowing you car.

[Kaftan Barlast]

Being extremely childish myself, I still remember exactly what it was like when I got dropped off at Dagis when I was his age. I was very sad and cried all morning but once I got together with the other kids and started playing I was more than alright.

 

 

That's great. I have a one year old boy myself.

 

 

They let 14-yearolds have babies down there?

[Gfted1]

Ah, I remember that day fondly. My daughter is now 7 and entering 2nd grade but she was VERY excited to start school and I distinctly remember being the one who couldnt "let go", lol.

[taks]

Your little boy is growing up Taks. Before you know he will be borrowing you car.

if you ask him, he's a little perturbed he's not already able to do that...

 

taks

[Xard]

You yanks really start "schooling" your kids early. In Finland pre-school is for 6 years old.

[Azure79]

Condolences to your son for starting school.

 

Pre-school is pretty fun. I actually remember my pre-school days. I would spend the morning looking at books (I can't remember if I was reading then or not) and then spend the afternoon building elaborate buildings with the toy blocks. My pre-school teacher, Miss Judy, was convinced I would become an architect.

 

I still play with blocks! I build something and my nephew comes running and smashes them down. I've nicknamed my nephew the 'Hulk'.

 

You should get your son some blocks.

 

Blocks are awesome.

 

So are Legos.

[taks]

Ah, I remember that day fondly. My daughter is now 7 and entering 2nd grade but she was VERY excited to start school and I distinctly remember being the one who couldnt "let go", lol.

john is a complete momma's boy. we moved here 6 months before he was born, which meant few friends and no family. as a result, he's rarely away from either us, more particularly, momma. he still cries sometimes when momma goes to play pool on wednesday evenings.

 

i talked to michele a bit ago and she's missing him terribly as i expected. she needs this as much as he does. hopefully she'll get a job and get some professional interaction she sorely needs. plus, private schools ain't cheap, so offsetting the cost would be nice.

 

taks

[Pidesco]

Think of all the money you're going to spend on your son's education until he leaves college. Done?

 

It seems to me that you should be the one crying.

[taks]

one of john's favorite games when he was younger was "playing blocks." now he's into much more complex games such as "tickle tag" and "race around the house."

 

You yanks really start "schooling" your kids early. In Finland pre-school is for 6 years old.

kindergarten is next year. by 6 most kids are in the 1st grade. technically, in CO, you don't have to declare your child in some form of school till he's 7.

 

taks

[Deraldin]

Pre-school is pretty fun. I actually remember my pre-school days. I would spend the morning looking at books (I can't remember if I was reading then or not) and then spend the afternoon building elaborate buildings with the toy blocks. My pre-school teacher, Miss Judy, was convinced I would become an architect.

 

I still play with blocks! I build something and my nephew comes running and smashes them down. I've nicknamed my nephew the 'Hulk'.

 

You should get your son some blocks.

 

Blocks are awesome.

 

So are Legos.

 

I agree entirely with this post. Blocks are awesome. I remember we had these big wooden blocks. They came in rectangles, squares, triangles (of various types!), cylinders and more! I'd spend my entire free play time building huge perfectly symmetrical buildings, usually they ended up taller than I was, made all the more impressive because the buildings I made were really two dimensional and thus more likely to fall over.

 

I fondly remember lunch times at my pre-school/daycare thing. We had awesome food there. Everyday a different person was chosen to help one of the teachers go bring lunch in for everyone. You would get to walk through the huge office building to the kitchen and help push the huge cart with all the food. I remember the day that I got to help. We had quiche that day.

 

There are a number of other things that I can remember, like always being the last one up after nap time, because the teachers couldn't wake me up without shaking me.

 

EDIT: Xard: I was barely three when I started pre-school.

Edited August 6, 2007 by Deraldin

[taks]

Think of all the money you're going to spend on your son's education until he leaves college. Done?

$7k-$8k/year for pre-school, about the same for grade school, though maybe a little less. typically, grade schools have more kids per class, which is why it is a bit cheaper in spite of more days per week (pre-school is MWF, full days). when he gets old enough, perhaps for high-school or middle school, we'll probably let him go to public school. we aren't ready to make such decisions yet.

 

It seems to me that you should be the one crying.

i am, it's just not apparent yet. i'm hoping he stays as smart as he is now. scholarships may be a requirement!

 

taks

[Meshugger]

What this forum expects of is that the time junior has learned to read, daddy will pickup a couple dices, a board and a nice book D&D-rules. Adventure awaits! Ahoy!

Edited August 6, 2007 by Meshugger

[Gromnir]

were not til high school that Gromnir started going to school on a regular basis, so our pov regarding formal education is atypical at best... and the school we first went to on a regular basis were widely considered to be one of the worst in Chicago. very little o' Gromnir's education (pre-university) ever happened in a school.

 

in any event, we thinks that the biggest mistake many parents make with their kids is that they feels that formal education ends parental responsibility insofar as teaching their kids is concerned (no suggestion that taks is such a fool.) sure, maybe mom or dad helps with a science project or a homework question, but for the most part it seems that parents leaves the teaching o' their kids to teachers. is a mistake? thinks back and try to recall the number o' teachers who got you to enjoy learning. is you more or less likely to be able to instill love of science, reading and/or history in your child than than some yutz who only gots a teaching job 'cause their GRE/MCAT/LSAT scores weren't good 'nuff to get 'em into a good grad school?

 

...

 

who gots time to genuine teach their children? not Gromnir... which is why we not have children. even so, we thinks that more important than paying for expensive education is the continuing parental duty to attempt to show children that learning can be fun. read to 'em. take'em to museums. does basic science experiments in the garage... whatever. other than those weird asian kids with the pocket protectors and 0 social life, the kids who did good in school always seemed to be the ones who liked to learn. parents got inside track.

 

taks not need Gromnir advice... but we is a preachy bastard by nature.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[taks]

i've got the core manuals and one of the starter modules at home... soon, soon. he loves to sit and watch me "play noise," which is typically either BG or NWN2 lately. he calls it noise because the beginning screens have some really loud sounds, and when he was two, that's what he thought it was: noise.

 

oh, he's starting on reading now, though it is slow going. we're concentrating on getting him to spell all of his favorite 3-letter words first. there's progress, and i expect we'll see bigger gains now that he's in pre-school.

 

taks

[taks]

taks not need Gromnir advice... but we is a preachy bastard by nature.

actually, taks fully agrees with gromnir advice. thanks.

 

our current plans are actually a balance of home-schooling and some sort of charter/private school. i'm so fed up with public school that i don't want him to trot down that path till he's old enough to understand when a teacher is preaching vs. teaching. even then, the only reasons for public high-school are a) access to lots of kids of varying socio-economic status (as well as cultures/races, but COS is like 87% white) and b) easier access to all the sports/after school programs. granted, kids can be in the latter even if they don't attend the school, but it helps if they already know all their peers from classrooms. COS public schools all have the balance (half public attendance school, half home-school) programs, btw, so we may not need to opt for privatization. we'll see.

 

taks

[Gfted1]

oh, he's starting on reading now, though it is slow going. we're concentrating on getting him to spell all of his favorite 3-letter words first. there's progress, and i expect we'll see bigger gains now that he's in pre-school.

 

taks

 

In first grade those are called sight words. You can print them out from the link if you want to get a leg up.

[taks]

way cool, thanks. i sent the link to my wife.

 

taks

[Kelverin]

I have a 4 year old named John as well. Here is one his favorite sites. It great and really interactive as well.

http://www.starfall.com/

[taks]

cool again, thanks as well.

 

mine is named after both of his grandfathers. john is my dad, michael is michele's dad. his unofficial name is john michael stinkerpants tak... we need to cure him of telling people that, though it's funny around adults.

 

taks

[Calax]

<.>

 

At least the guy isn't in cali public schools... you get enough books that you have 2 choices, rolling luggage, or a backpack (with the breaking of your back as an added benefit.)

[Deraldin]

<.>

 

At least the guy isn't in cali public schools... you get enough books that you have 2 choices, rolling luggage, or a backpack (with the breaking of your back as an added benefit.)

 

Just how much are we talking about here? My backpack was never lighter than 40 pounds throughout my high school career. Wasn't much lighter during elementary.

[Walsingham]

The only bad thing I can recall about pre-school was that it lulled me into a false sense of goodwill regarding school. I was immensely privileged to attend a tiny village pre-school with a pair of kindhearted spinsters running it. Happy days.