School starts soon. If you are new to this, allow me to give you some real help. If you’ve been through it all before read it anyway and rate yourself on how well you did with your child’s teacher. Knowing these facts will be helpful and following the advice may well make the difference between early childhood teachers loving you and…well, not loving you. Kindergarten and first grade parents need to know that teachers don’t want you crying your eyes out in the doorway waving goodbye for half an hour on the first day of school. You need to know that your kids will cry as long as you will and not more than 30 seconds longer. I happen to know for a fact that no matter how much blubbering and wailing goes on before you leave, your child is completely fine the minute you’re out of sight. Many a parent has been made a fool of without even knowing it. Oh, and don’t show up early at the end of the day and hang around outside the door either. Teachers know you’re listening in to see if they’re as nice now, as they seemed to be in the morning.
In August, your focus must be on supply accumulation. When you know what to get, get it all. Teachers love it when kids come in on the first day with everything. It means your child won’t have to cry, borrow, pout, withdraw or refuse later on in the week when the real work begins all because they don't have their own pencils yet. Want to score more points with your child’s teacher? Label. You can never overdo the labeling. Label the lunch bag, the pencil case, each crayon, every pencil, shoe, scissor, marker, paint box, eraser, notebook and folder. Show up with a nametag on that says, "Hello. I'm June, Jennifer's mother." (Jennifer, of course will have "Jennifer" embroidered on the front of her T-shirt.)You can’t imagine how territorial kids are and how many problems erupt over unlabeled supplies, desire and raw impulse. When in doubt, label. Love your child. Buy a Sharpie.
When sending food with your child there are things you should know. A snack shouldn’t be a meal, and can‘t be complicated. You could send sliced pears, pickles and fruit cocktail in a black flight box and there would be juice all over everything by 11AM. There is just no time for liquid matter and kids think it’s funny when stuff squirts all over the place. Teachers, not so much. They don’t want you to send juice in those boxes or bags you have to jam the skinny little straws into, either. Teachers want you to know that many of your kids can’t peel. They can’t jam down an apple as big as their face during the five or ten minutes of snack time, especially with only three teeth. They can’t eat applesauce without spoons or open single serving fruit containers, soda cans and Tupperware. If it can spill, it will. When you think food, think dry. Here’s a test. If you, wearing an expensive white silk suit, would be willing to eat the food you send with your child, if it doesn’t change its shape when put in a different container, and if an arthritic can open it, you’ve sent developmentally appropriate food. Unless the teachers provide the snacks, you’ll have to accept the fact that every single day for the next three or four years of your life, you will be obligated to prepare a non-liquid, small sized, pre-sliced, possibly nut free, healthy, dry snack that your child will eat and not be tired of after about thirty-seven days. Good luck with that.
