Results tagged “school” from Momtourage: Blogger Knows Best

Lily, our First Grader, had her first assembly of the school year Wednesday.  Sounds harmless right??....apparently not any more.....scary music.....dum dum dummmm.  An official note from the school prinicipal came home in her backpack yesterday warning us that due to the potential dangers of the H1N1 Virus that Wednesday's all school assembly will be the first and the last one of the year due to potential cross-contamination of possibly, allegedly (imagine Law and Order sound track) infected students.  And the Halloween Parade is cancelled too.....and that's outside!!!  No more in school recitals either.  No Holiday Pageant in school the day before Winter Recess and no Pilgrims Parade either.  Do they really believe that keeping the different grades separate will help curb exposure to these viruses??  What about all the different grades riding the bus together in the morning, or the lunch room, or when they cross in the hallways??  Flu segregation sounds like an impossible notion and something out of the middle ages to me.  Doesn't this all sound a little drastic to you?  It's not just me right?!  Can I get a witness??

Earthquakes, tsunamis, rising unemployment, (my husband is still unemployed 7 months later - so sexy) the economy, failing industries, the health care crisis, global warming, Detroit.  Have you heard enough?  Are you ready to just drive your hybrid car into a tree already?...wait a minute.  We need that tree.  Try driving into a Walmart...that would make us all feel a bit better...just avoid the greeter.  She's probably somebody's grandma and most likely the primary child care provider in her household.  As if all this isn't bad enough, we received some more troubling news yesterday:  Lily is receiving extra help in Math and Reading during school.  What?!  I thought she was doing so well in her new school? 

Kids can really embarrass their mothers.  Lily got me and good yesterday.  I went to her Open School Night on Monday and met her teacher, the school librarian and other educational professionals.  They're all wonderfully supportive and nurturing....that's why not only am I embarrassed at what happened but I also feel like a real heel.  Lily's school librarian looks just like Miss Piggy.  I mean she's the spitting image of her.  I almost did a double take.  My husband was pinching my leg under the table and whispering "Hi Yah!" in my ear.

I never expected to be a city mom. I grew up in a very rural area, moved to a slightly less rural area, and reluctantly made an employment-related move to one of the biggest cities in the country. It was unexpected, exhilarating and now, as I negotiate the subways with two kids in tow, I have to add exhausting to that list of adjectives. Maybe put it right up there in first place on the list and drop the exhilarating altogether. At the end of the day, I'm just dog tired.

I'm writing this because we had a troubling notice come home from our school yesterday:  apparently, there are several children in our school who have life threatening allergies to peanuts, tree nuts, wheat, milk and eggs.  The officials in our district are actually contemplating segregating these children from the rest of the children during lunch.  I don't remember hearing about all these allergies when I was growing up: the attitude in the 70's was basically - "Oh well, it sucks to be you."  However, that is not the case today.  We can all debate why these allergies exist (pollution, pesticides) but that does nothing to solve the issue of anaphylactic shock.  When a kid can't breathe because of peanut butter fumes the 'why' debate helps no one. 

I've been keeping Lily home from her New York City School this week not because of the swine flu but because of flu-like symptoms:  fever; projectile vomiting (lovely); chills; muscle aches; coughing....the list just goes on and on....and she's sleeping even less as well.  Great.  The pediatrician said give her Tylenol that'll break the fever I was like: "No, you know what will break the fever - daylight because she's sucking the life out of me.  She's a vampire!"  Apparently, I'm not the only one.  I called the school to let them know I'm keeping her home and they told me that 52% of the school was absent on Tuesday!  I don't think it's just a scare either because ALL the children on our block are home sick this week with these flu-like symptoms in addition to their double ear infections and Strep throats.  Isn't childhood just lovely??  Is your child home sick with these flu-like symptoms this week?  What are you doing to pass the time?  Please share.

Ripped from today's headlines there's another story of a Teacher (aged 27) allegedly having sex with her 14 year old student.  Shocking and disgusting.  The mother of the boy was tipped off by another parent at their PTA meeting.  (I will never blow off another PTA meeting again.)  After checking out his cell phone, the mother found hundreds of contacts between the student and teacher who were allegedly having sex on the school grounds no less.  One of the last texts from the teacher told the boy to "erase your phone" which he obviously did not.   Apparently, she's still good at giving directions.....and he's stilll not good at following through on them. 

While peering through the glass of a hospital nursery, Tony Pratofiorito carefully watched his newborn daughter Juliana. He'd been waiting nine months for her to arrive, and he couldn't have been happier. But, that moment of elation turned into concern when someone standing behind him asked about his daughter's nursery school prospects--twice.

Lily's class had an Easter slash Passover party last week.  She absolutely adores both holidays so the party was a real treat for her.  I have to admit I love spring too...in fact I wish it would show up one of these days...it's cold as ever and miserable here in the northeast.  So, any kind of celebration that marks a change of season is always welcome to us.  Her teacher asked us all to donate $5 for the supplies so I didn't even have to bake for this party.....I'm loving her teacher more every day.

by Kris

I should be looking forward to this afternoon. My oldest son is being picked up from his Kindergarten class to go directly to a playdate with his best friend. She lives less than a block away from us and her sitter is fantastic - patient, kind, resourceful. I know that she can handle whatever comes along.

And boy do I fear that something will come along. And although you probably wouldn't guess it from meeting him for the first or even the second time, my son is a special needs child. Most of the time he is absolutely fine - engaging, intelligent and creative. Functional. But just when I am lulled into hoping that our problems may be lessening, it happens.

There's a new documentary chronicling the grueling process of preschool admissions in New York City: Nursery University. I'm guessing that "University" refers to the comparison to competitive college admissions, and the belief that the path to the coveted Ivy League schools begins at the exclusive nursery school. Which is why these parents are shown going to great lengths to secure a place for their children in these institutions.

Just watching the trailer makes me anxious. The recent baby boom means that there are many, many toddlers vying for the precious few spots in private pre-k. While I didn't encounter this when I lived in New York (luckily Mr G was painlessly accepted to a terrific school in Park Slope called Beansprouts), I did find this to be the case when I moved to Austin. In Texas, many moms put their babes on waiting lists when their child is in utero, hopefully timing it so that two years later, the child will be accepted. According to the film, niether expensive tuition nor the economic downturn is enough to deter folks from applying to these NY schools. On the contrary, the low odds seemed to make people more determined to get in.

I'm curious if you or anyone you know went through a similar challenging experience trying to get into a desirable nursery school.