Summer is ending and the school season is near! If you’re like me, you’re probably having some mixed emotions about your little ones heading back to school this year. On the one hand, I’m excited for them to make new friends, learn new things & grow in more ways than I can count. On the other, I’m a little sad that they’ll be away from me all day and I’ll have to be wondering what they’re doing while they’re away!
This will be the first year my kids have been in school all week as I’ve worked from home with them for the last five years. Prior to becoming a work-from-home mom, I was a preschool/Pre-K teacher.
Since I have yet to ever actually have kids in school, I can’t really offer up any ideas for what you need to be doing to prepare for the year, but what I CAN offer from the perspective of a past teacher….. are five things NOT to do when your kid starts preschool/Pre-K.
1. Leave the morning rituals at the door.
We know it’s hard to leave your babies with complete strangers all day. But when you linger at the door hugging, kissing, high-fiving, and doing the hokey pokey all while the teacher is trying to shuffle 15 other kids through the door and get their day started, you’re only making things worse for everyone.
Your kid is inevitably going to cry when you FINALLY leave, and then the other kids are going to start crying, and then the teacher is going to want to cry because she’s trying to console 16 crying children on top of the mound of things she already has to do. The quicker the drop-off, the better the entire day will be!
2. Do NOT send gloves for your children in the wintertime.
Seriously. Mittens only! NOBODY has time to get 32 fingers in glove holes before recess only for 12 of the kids to remove them once they’re outside.
3. No fruit cups or pizza lunchables.
Listen… nobody is judging that you’re sending a Lunchable for lunch (ok, maybe we are). But we get it.. they’re easy and kids love them. BUT, if you’re going to send the pizza kind, at least also send a bib for the child and a Starbuck’s gift card for the teacher because she’s going to need some coffee after said child smears the sauce all over the table and their friends. And the fruit cups…Just no. The juice goes everywhere. Every. Single. Time.
4. No… we can’t warm anything up.
Please just don’t ask. Just pack lunches that don’t require us to slit the wrapper, stir the meal and then heat it for a certain amount of time. We aren’t being jerks, we just cram our food in our faces, go pee for the first time of the day, make copies, wipe boogers off tables, set up a new activity, prepare for rest time and set up all the student lunches in maybe 30 minutes. We do not have the time or the extra capacity to make sure Billy’s chicken nuggets are served up like they just came out of the Chik-Fil-A fryer. Send a turkey Lunchable. Again…no judgment (probably).
5. Velcro Shoes.
PLEASE. For the love. If your child doesn’t know how to tie their shoes yet, do not send them in shoes that inevitably come untied 53 times a day. That’s 32 shoes times 16 kids times 53 times we have to bend down in the middle of something else to tie a shoe. Yes, the shoes are cute. But if you love your child’s teacher, just send them in shoes that they can take care of on their own.
In all seriousness, we know it’s hard to send your babies off on their own way, and it’s hard to let go of doing things a certain way. Please just know that your teachers love your kids like their own, they know what they are doing, and your kids are perfectly fine during the day while they are away from you. Relax and let you and your kiddos both enjoy this new season! The teachers have got this!
Just don’t make them open any fruit cups and everyone will be fine! 😉
