School!

The Boy starts "school" next week.  It's a very casual, mixed-age program that I chose primarily because 1) it's cheaper than the sitter;  2) a friend sent her kids there and they loved it; and 3) it's very convenient.

I'm sending him primarily for recreation (especially messy art projects that I'm too much of a wimp to do at home) and socialization.  I am specifically not interested in any sort of learning readiness curriculum because The Boy is just two, for heaven's sake, and there is time enough for all that later.

I'm optimistic that The Boy will love this.  He's used to being away from me when he's with the sitter so I don't think he'll have too many separation issues.  He loves being around other kids--especially older ones--so this should fit the bill.

But two things are interfering with my optimism:

1) Every communication I've received from the school has some sort of glaring typo in it (most recently, "congradulations").   I'm not pathological about spelling, and I'm not expecting The Boy to learn to spell in this program, but the typos make me nuts.*  Running spell check seems like a pretty basic human competency, and if the school director can't be trusted to do this, what other basic procedures might she tend to skip?

2)  The Boy has fallen in love with his sitter all over again.  This morning he stood at the window and called the sitter's name over and over again a full hour before she was scheduled to arrive.  School was supposed to me a more social, less expensive alternative to the sitter that would still allow me to have some solo time with The Girl, but now I feel like I'm scarring The Boy by taking him away from the sitter.

This is standard parenting angst, isn't it?

*As I've  commented elsewhere,  I'm only judgmental about misspellings in a professional setting.  I understand all about blogging, commenting, and emailing on the fly.

Comments

[Jess]

Sounds like normal parenting angst to me, (but I'm probably only saying that to ease my own parental guilt.)

I was horrified when a few of the teachers at my boy's first "school" did not use proper grammar, since he would be learning so much about language from them. I bounced it off a few other parents and learned that I was being crazy.

[Suz]

I agree -- one occasional typo in a professional communication is fine, but I would be a little concerned to find a newsletter littered with them.

It sounds like standard angst and exactly the type of thing that would concern me, probably needlessly so.

[Lisa]

My son's 4th-grade teacher sent home a newsletter with "could of" in it.

This year my other son wrote "buisness" on a spelling test and his teacher didn't count it wrong.

I despair.

[Rebekah]

Just wondering ... and please feel free to answer via email if you prefer ... are the initials to the school PKA?

[Monica]

Whenever we get letters home from my son's nursery school, I have to read them three times just to understand exactly what is being said. The owner writes the letters in such an odd way that it's difficult to figure out what's going on. But, she is wonderful with my son and he loves her so I try not to think about it too often.

[Trisha]

Delurking to say that I always mention typos to the day care director when I see them. I figure they need to know, and although The Boy is only two, there are most likely older kids for whom it might be confusing. I'm very polite about it, but I do say something. :)

[Susan]

My daughter's first grade teacher sent home a paper the other day with a list of things-to-know and it had no less than 10 spelling errors, and they were glaring! I am hoping some other teacher wrote it.

[caro]

I would be appalled about the typos. Then I would try to remind myself that , while correctness in the written language is huge for me, but there's a whole lot in the realm of, say, interacting with a room full of preschoolers, that would be second nature to the horrible speller but that I'd be so clueless about I wouldn't even know I was missing it. Failing to spell check could just mean they don't care about spelling. Which has no bearing at all on their ability to be great caregivers for two year olds.

[caro]

Eerm, yeah, feel free to be appalled by all my grammar weirdness above, too.

[Bev]

Typos drive me nuts too, but then again I am a former elementary school teacher.

[Tonya]

Yes, it bugs me too. I'm one to (gently, proactively) point out typos to the preschool director. I know she is busy with a dozen other more-important tasks on any given day, but she has told me before she appreciates knowing.

Are you planning to engage the sitter to come back occasionally to see your son (and maybe give you a break from both kids, or maybe a date night)? I learned the hard way on that, and I regret that I didn't plan a few extra dates when I transitioned my daughter from shared-nanny to preschool. She really missed the nanny and felt abandoned when she didn't see her again for a VERY long while. I earned my dunce cap with that one! (assvice hat off)

I hope the Boy simply adores his new school!

[Toni]

Our school is VERY good with the girls - but not so good on organization. To me, organization is the same that typos are to you...

The best way to make sure this is the best for The Boy is to make sure that when you drop him off (and he will cry) that when you go back - he's happy. Bear cries EVERY time we drop her off - but is completely happy when I sneak back to check on her later. Like she's doing it for my benefit.

Gotta love these kids :)

[cat]

It is most certainly typical, you have every right to feel it all and you are not any crazier than I am.

*cough* Not that that's saying much darling.

Hope the boy raises some hell at "school" and comes home covered in art projects.

[Mandy]

My son's first daycare had lots of misspellings and grammatical errors in the newsletter, which normally drive me nuts (even in non-professional settings; I just can't help it, they grate on me). But I decided that if the director's forte was taking care of children, not copyediting, that was okay with me. At least the tone of the newsletter was enthusiastic and very loving, even if she couldn't use apostrophes correctly!