Sunday, May 30, 2010

wrapping up the school year

Valentine's Day craft time at Luca's school.

This was Luca's first year in school and, just like he learned a lot in school, I learned a lot about what it means to have my child in school. One of the surprises was how much Alain and/or I were to be present at the school during work hours. While Alain owns his business and is limited by workload, I work for someone else and I am limited by workload and company policies. Some of the school-time requests we received:

- School open house event: even before Luca was enrolled, we attended the open house event (10:00 a.m. on a Monday)
- School orientation: once admitted, Luca was to visit the school with us and become familiar with the place and his classroom (Friday 3:00 p.m.)
- Parent/Teacher meetings: 3 meetings during the school year (between 8:00 and 10:00 a.m. on Tuesdays)
- School forum: Luca performed for the Halloween show, Winter show, Valentines Day show, Mardi Gras show and End-of-year Show (9:00 - 11:00 a.m.on Wednesdays)
- Winter and Spring Fair: an event for parents and children (9:00 - 12:00 on Fridays)

Combine that with the times he had a fever and we had to pick him up, and it amounts to quite a bit. I am very thankful for the stay-at-home parents as well as parents with a flexible work schedule because they went along on field trips and aided for classroom projects.

While I love how many activities happen at the school and how much Luca enjoys them, I still struggle with wanting to attend all of them but being unable to do so. I am better prepared for next school year, but I wonder how things will go when Andre begins school. Double the time? I sure hope there is some overlap or I'll have to start working part time just to be there for both of them!

1 comment:

  1. I know what you mean. Sometimes it's hard to miss out on things that my daughter does at school. I'm also thankful for moms who can pitch in because they sure make a difference.

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