02/17/06

Got some figures from private preschools in the area..holy shit it is preschool robbery!!

Option 1-$15.00 registration + $75.00 per child, per month for 2 days a week, 2 1/2 hours a day.
Option 2-$15.00 registration + $70.00 per child, per month for 2 days a week, 2 1/2 hours a day.

Still waiting for 2 other options.

Right now we pay $37.50 (for only Abby, boys are free) a month, 2 days a week, 3 hours a day and that includes busing! The other schools don't provide that.

02/16/06

My kids preschool teacher (also my boys therapist) called me this am and told me to NOT put my kids in kindergarden, even 1/2 days this fall. She said it's to stressful for the kids. She said she's trying to set up a meeting with the teachers in our district to talk about this situation. She told me the kindergarden teachers are in an uproar because of this, having little 4 year olds coming to kindergarden who are obviously not ready.

So now I don't know what we're going to do. For my own benefit I started contacting the private preschools in town today to get some $$ figures.

She also told me today that she can't legally tell me (from a teachers point of view) if my kids are ready to go to kindergarden or not. She said it's out of her control and since their b-day is before the cut off date there is nothing she can do to say if they are ready or not. I guess they just HAVE to be ready. They are not allowing any school age kids (turn 5 before 10/15) to attend the preschool. She told me friend to friend, not to send them to K this fall. So I got the impression that was her suttle way of telling me from a teachers point of view not to send them.

We do still have an IEP and I asked early childhood today about them funding preschool for the boys, and I was told "We will not fund private preschool, but will provide the necessary aids for your boys if needed." I was also told if we (Troy & I) were not happy with this, then we may have to get an adovate involved, but she quickly said "no one has ever done that before." and I said "and I hope we're not the first, because I don't feel what Im requesting is unreasonable." The more I think about putting them in K this fall (even for 1/2 days) the more I don't like it. My kids will constantly be behind the class and suffering to keep up because they will only be there for 1/2 days.

I will try to contact the school district tomorrow and ask them if they'll pay for the boys preschool, but Im sure that'll be a no since they are offering school, even though it's kindergarden.

Troy & I are now wondering if we should just say screw it to school completely next fall??

School districts suck!! 02/15/06

This should of been posted on 02/15

The school called today with very upsetting news. They have changed the requirements for school and the new cut off date for kindergarden is Oct. 15th (it was Oct. 1st), so we no longer qualify for public preschool, and we made the cut off..by 6 days. GRR!! Now it looks like we're going to have a little battle on our hands with the school. There is no way my kids are ready for all day, everyday kindergarden. And it just cringes my stomach to think if they do go to all day everyday kindergarden this fall that they'll be going to 1st grade in 2007 at the age of...5!!! Rather then retype everything Im going to copy/paste an email I just sent to another online friend of mine who is in the same situation with her school. Her triplets are also 4 and the school wants to send them to all day everyday kindergarden too..with 1st grade in 2007. Here's the email I typed to her..

____________________________________________________________________

The woman who called me today to tell me this *wonderful* news (hahaha..she actually thought I'd be pleased!!) told me "I think you're underestimating your kids." I said "You know what..you could be right..but there is still no way Im going to send my 5 year olds to first grade in 2007 if they go all day everyday kindergarden this fall." She then recommended to me that I go to the kindergarden class and observe the class then decide (if we should go all day) next school year. Regardless my kids WILL be going 1/2 day this fall, all day everyday next fall. They're only in school 2 days a week now, (3 hours per day). Wyatt especially will never, ever, ever in a million years no matter what happens in the next 6 months beable to handle going from 2 days a week (3 hours a day) to 5 days a week (7 hours a day). She said "I think you'll be suprised with how close acedmically (sp?) your kids are from the kindergardners". Then she said something that really raised my eyebrows..."We only have 238 kids between k-12, so it isn't like your son (Wyatt) wouldn't have the extra attention to help him." Sooo..to me that statement said "We need to get as many kids as we can in kindergarden to meet a quota." Im not pushing my kids just so the school district can get the funding they need if that is indeed the case.

The woman today also told me that I could move my kids from 1/2 day kindergarden to full day anytime next school year. There is no way, even if my kids do show readiness, that Im doing that. I don't want the school to have any leverage of being able to say my kids are ready for 1st grade in 2007. We had this same option this school year for preschool, we were told (by the same woman) that we could move our kids from 2 days to 4 days (1/2 days) anytime during the school year, but both Troy & I decided to just keep them at 2 days and next year we'd move them to 4 days. I am sooooooooo glad we decided to do that, because if we would have moved them to 4, I don't think we'd have an option for this coming school year. They'd go in all day everyday kindergarden.

She also said we could put them in all day everyday kindergarden next school year, and just repeat kindergarden next year. Nope, we're not going to do that either, 1/2 day next school year, all day everyday in 2007. I've got my feet dug in and Im not movin'.

Nebraska the cut off is Oct. 15, and they start school middle of August. Crazy..simply crazy IMHO.