Sunday, September 7, 2008

Getting Ready for School

Like many of you I have been deep into preparation for school the past couple of weeks. K. started second grade last week. It was a great week, she was so happy to be back in school. Her teacher is really nice and the class seems to be quite structured for second grade. K does not have any food allergies so I do not have to fret about that. I did however have to send in a doctors note about her ruptured ear. She had surgery 2 weeks ago to repair the rupture, and can not participate in P.E. or any other physical activity for 3 or 4 more weeks.

The boys are another story. R will begin Jr. Kindergarten in a school that is nut free. I do not worry too much about him. I know the school snacks are safe and I will attend the class parties and field trips to check on what is being served from outside the classroom.

I am a little more concerned about C. His allergies are numerous, and the wheat and egg allergies worry me the most. He will be attending the same school as his brother, just 3 days a week. The school has a great tradition of scheduling home visits for all the students and teachers a week before school. It gives the teachers a great opportunity to meet the child one on one and makes the transition very smooth. It also gives the parents the opportunity to discuss any issues.

Due to C's allergies both his teacher and the assistant came to visit. I think the meeting went very well. C was very shy, but I feel like our allergy conversation went very well. Before the meeting I had sent a note to the school with a list of things I wanted to review. The teachers had a copy of the list so they were prepared with questions as well. They understand the importance that C only eat food that I supply. We agreed that I would send his snack in a lunch box so that he will know to only eat from his special box. I will be attending all the class parties and am happy to make 2 or 3 items for the kids to share. I also had some concerns about craft projects. Normally the mom's volunteer to take turns making play dough every month. C can not play with play dough made from flour. I printed several recipes for play dough that was made from corn starch. They will be distributed to the class. In addition I offered to supply the class with brown rice noodles if needed for art projects. We basically started a positive dialog. I explained that I was willing to help out in any way to help make sure C was safe and that would help the teachers to focus on teaching.

Over all I feel pretty good about the allergy thing. I think I am more worried about the potty thing. C. is newly potty trained (YEAH), but I worry he will forget to go, or be too shy to tell the teacher he needs help. Tomorrow is the open house, and school starts on Tuesday.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

So much to think about and worry about! Potty training seems so long ago. It is now a distant memory--my youngest is almost 5 now. And then the allergies as well.

I do think it is nice that your school does a home visit. we don't have anything like that. The best I can figure here is to bumble and blunder along until I come upon a challenge that's beyond me, picking the brains of the mothers of older kids whenever I can. I wonder how I would feel with our school if we had multiple food allergies. As it is, I am yet uneasy with just the peanuts/tree nuts. How to avoid so many foods with so many messy children around...

But your school staff sounds like they are trying, which is more than we can say about some other locations. Good luck! It sounds like you are off to a good start!