I recall seeing this at the beginning of summer, smiling, anticipating I'd be doing the same. Come September, however, I had mixed feelings about school starting. It was a sad reminder that the summer had gone by too quickly . . . and maybe that winter would be following too shortly? I felt I hadn't spent enough time with my kids - and not just this summer, but for much of their lives! :) Which would of course refer to quality time, as I've had lots and lots of time spent with my kids as a stay-at-home mom. But where has the time gone that suddenly I have an 8, 5 and 4 year old all ready for school, at least half days of it? It snuck up so quickly I didn't have much time to deeply feel anxious, relieved, thankful, sad or any of my other fleeting feelings.
The first day of school had A hopping on the bus but the other two heading in for meet-the-teacher time. It worked out well that S was off on holiday still, as their meetings were at the same time but at two different schools. A & Ai attend the catchment French Immersion school* and are picked up by bus. There is no French Immersion Nursery program, however, so Iz has to attend our nearby English catchment school unless I get her to school myself. I'd done that for Ai last year, but the plan this winter is that we will be vehicle-free. That's another story. Anyway, when registering Iz, I couldn't bear the thought of walking her twenty five minutes there and back every day (and Ai, too, as it would mean we wouldn't make it home before his bus dropped him off). It's not ideal, but we're making it work . . .
It was cute to see their excitement. S took Ai while I got to take Iz and see her put on the charm with her teacher. Very sweet.
The following Monday, morning Kindergarten and Nursery began. What a relief to have big sister encourage little brother through his fear of riding the bus. I know I would have been much more anxious without her help and thankfully he did just fine. Not like an afternoon Kindergartener who was dropped off at the wrong school that day! Ai's bus stops at a different school to drop their students off first. "Jacob" was called. Turns out there were two Jacobs on the bus, so they both got off and went to the Kindergarten class. The teacher there enrolled the un-enrolled Jacob as a new student and put him on the bus at the end of the day. He made it to his daycare very late, but okay and his parents weren't informed of the mistake. In fact, Ai's school has a "call-back program" so that if a child doesn't show up and no caregiver has called in to state their absence, the school is responsible to call the home. In this case, no one did. Jacob happened to mention his adventure at the wrong school to his Mom two days later and the press got word of the error(s). Oops!
I'm so glad I didn't know such mistakes could happen. All went well and after an initial few weeks of being a bit rowdy on the bus - thanks to three little excited buddies riding home together - all is going better . . . I think. Unlike last year where he complained EVERY day about going to Nursery, he usually gets ready for school with little hesitation and is out the door. Last year I'd wondered how we were going to get him through 13 more years of required education, so I'm glad his attitude has improved this year!
Though I must say, if feels strange and unnatural to not see him in his classroom. I no longer get to rub shoulders with fellow parents and have first-hand knowledge as to what his class or classmates are like. Good thing he's still a talker so I'm not completely unaware!
Oddly, Iz isn't as much of a talker at school or about school. She's settled in fine, but it's funny to see a shy-side to her, as that typically isn't what we or others experience! Her favourite thing about her class is the Lego table, which I find rather heart-warming, as mine in Kindergarten was the car mat. I learned last night that perhaps Iz isn't quite as shy as I'd thought. According to our dinner time conversation, she has a "boyfriend," Ricardo, and they've been chasing each other on the playground. I'm pretty sure I didn't talk of boys until much later . . . like in my 20s!
A lower income school, there are some obvious differences between the French Immersion one in a more middle-class neighbourhood and this one. Some are:
1. I'm one of three Caucasian mothers in the class (of 28 Kindergarten and Nursery students) and English is likely not the first language for about half of the children. That's one thing I love about our neighbourhood - it's very ethnically diverse. Not so the area where A & Ai's school is. There, Ai will always be in the majority - he has maybe two kids of colour in his class. I'm not too happy that this means the opposite for A and eventually Iz. I think there are four other kids of colour - Tamil, African, Haitian and Filipino in A's class this year. She was the only First Nations child in her class in Grade 1, was with a Metis boy in Grade 2 and in Grade 3 is back to being the solo St:olo or other Indigenous person. Iz definitely has a good handful of First Nations classmates and and many more as schoolmates. I've been told that 60% of the student body would fall into that category. There are times I dread the thought of taking her out of this school to put her into the other one next year - mainly for this reason. :(
2. Student names are much more funky in Iz's school. The names on the artwork displayed down the hallways range from ethnic names, new to me, or uncommon ones. Often they're a unique addition to a classic name or an untypical spelling. There seem to be a few more names with an emphasis on the second syllable, versus the more common first syllable of typical English names. And while I don't necessarily like all of what I read or hear, I was rather partial to such an iambic rhythm when dreaming of names for my girls. Maybe more ones influenced by French patterns, I liked jaNAE, siMONE, linNEa and others which S quickly scratched off the list. :) Originally, we thought we'd be adopting an African American child and that may have influenced my choices, knowing African American names are often iambic. Think deONdra, aMISHa, O'SHAY, tiONNE. Down the hallway, I've seen naTIVa, miCHAELa, laSHONda. In her class, A has SArah, ASHley, KATElynn, GRAcie.
Sidetracked once again! But maybe I should volunteer one day at an animal shelter so I could help name strays and get put my name-fixation to use. The kids don't let me name their stuffies any more . . .
3. Student clothes are much more funky in A & Ai's school. Economics is where it's at with that one.
4. That's also why I don't pack Iz a snack for school. The school provides it for her and the other students - no home food is allowed to put everyone on an equal stand. The surprise element is fun for Iz, never knowing what she'll be eating that day. The surprise for me is when she declares, "Today we had . . . . fruit loops and bananas . . . donuts with little dots on them . . . chocolate milk and cheese." It's not always my idea of a healthy snack, but she's happy. I'm pretty careful about what goes in A & Ai's lunch boxes, making it healthy with no disposables and the required "NO NUTS!" The day I packed Ai a small piece of chocolate zucchini cake, he had a reprimand from his teacher for me: "Mom, I'm not supposed to have any sweets in my lunch." Oops. Different schools, different standards, although I actually think it's just different teachers. I've seen some pretty unhealthy wrappers in his schools' bins before . . .
I have to say, it's fun to walk the school corridor with Iz each morning as there is always the smell of cooking. Always very food-oriented, it's interesting how the moment she catches a waft, she readily identifies the food correctly before I'm conscious of a smell. "Hmm . . . it's smells like ________." <insert chicken, potatoes and cheese, noodle soup, etc>. I like discovering an aspect of my child I hadn't been aware of before - her keen sense of smell.
5. Both schools play the National Anthem over the PA system after class commences. Last year I was unaware of this tradition because I was so late getting Ai to Nursery each morning. I think I only heard it for the first time in November and maybe five times after that. We came later. In my defence, initially I was riding Ai over in the bike trailer after A's bus came and picked her up. Come snow time, I drove and discovered it was pointless trying to arrive before 9 am. With schools built pre-automobile, there are no parking lots and very limited street parking in the area. It's a traffic zoo around the school, so I'd wait until the rush was off so we could pull up and find parking nearby. No use driving the blocks wasting gas . . . :)
At the middle-class school, they play the same traditional version of O Canada every day. At Iz's school I've heard four different versions by now. I usually try to make sure I don't hear any as I find it so hard to stand at attention and sing by myself in the hallway. I was sternly corrected once by a teacher as I tried to slowly, casually keep walking to the nearest door, on my way to an appointment. "Please stand at attention and sing." Now I try to dart out before it starts, also because I don't like the sound tracks played, especially the version sung by kids. While I have a very high tolerance for kids' music or kids' performances, I don't for canned music sung by kids. Even worse were the two set to a beat, one techno, one rap-style. They actually made me giggle uncontrollably in Iz's class till the E.A.s started laughing, too, knowing how ridiculous the songs sounded. That's my unpatriotic-sounding rant. I just don't recall the tradition of singing it daily back in BC. Is this just a Manitoba thing?
Anyway, enough about school. I'm certainly thankful I have the choice to send my kids there . . . or not (unlike Germany where home-schooling is illegal). And I'm thankful we have a few schools nearby, so options to choose from. If these options don't work longterm, we'll have yet other options. None of them may ever be "the best," but it's hard to complain when we have far more than many others will ever get. For now, these two schools are meeting my kids' needs, and also meeting mine. I'm not getting the more focused me-time I'd imagined I'd get with two alone hours each morning. By the time I pick-up after the morning rush out the door, wash dishes and start laundry, maybe think of dinner, I usually have a little more time for another project - the much needed mending, catching up on correspondence or other things I'd neglected over the summer. It's nice to do them alone, however, and also sneak out for errands without tag-alongs. So much quicker! I'm certainly thankful for the break . . .
** When we moved from Vancouver we automatically put A into the French Immersion school, as she'd enjoyed it so much her Kindergarten year spent in Maple Ridge. What I didn't know was that Winnipeg has French schools, French Milieu schools and French Immersion schools. BC schools would be equivalent to a Milieu school where the majority of teaching happens in French. A's home reading books are English ones, whereas even in Kindergarten, she had little French books. Oh well. I might have opted for the Milieu if I'd researched better, but things are what they are at this point. Just don't really expect my kids to know French if you bump into them. :)
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