Back to School Anxiety - not with homeschooling!

The Facebook posts are just about done. I sincerely LOVE to see everyone's pictures, and I do post my own. Occasionally I see things that *bother* me... I'm not sure if they bother the mother as much as they bother me. Not everyone is in a position to homeschool. I understand that.

To protect the identity of the poster I won't use names... But a student was starting Kindergarten this year. That makes the child 5 years old. The school has a rule that the parents are not allowed to accompany the child to the classroom. WHAT THE WHAT? I cried dropping off my High School Senior! I didn't walk her to class, but I still cried!

"They didn’t allow the kinder parents to walk the kids to their classes today, so we took our pictures at home."

This Mom was just posting...she didn't seem upset, and for her - that's ok... I'm FREAKING OUT.
Not allow the PRIMARY EDUCATOR to walk THEIR CHILD to the classroom - what are they
HIDING - the CHOKIE, like in Matilda?

In Catholic Education we view parents as the primary educators. I spent 15 years establishing
PARTNERSHIPS with parents. I would never DREAM of not allowing them in my classroom.
In homeschooling I'm freaking out on a whole different level. HOW DARE YOU TELL ME
I CAN'T WALK MY CHILD TO THE CLASSROOM. WATCH ME. I think I would have pulled my
child out of school right then if that was my first experience. Cold prickly.

I did my student teaching in Kindergarten. At the time I thought it was God's sick joke.
It was a year-round school so I had to go through the "first day" of Kindergarten with 2 sets
of 5-year olds. My experience was all 9 and 10 year olds. I was WAY out of my element.
I clearly recall the teacher gently prying a student out of his mother's arms.
There was all sorts of crying, but the teacher assured both the student and the parent
everything would be okay. He really handled the situation with kindness.
(But I think this was planting seeds I didn't know about. I was engaged, but not yet married,
no children of my own.)

We also had a student who didn't talk. He was painfully shy. Zachery. I was in love with this boy. He would raise his hand and lose his nerve, but I never made him feel like he was wrong, or bad, or that there was anything wrong with him - because there wasn't. The day he answered... It took all my composure not to OVERREACT and throw a FREAKING PARTY. Students like Zachary kept me teaching. The thank you bookmark he gave me was under the glass on my desk until the day I left teaching.

Another friend - an adult posted to Facebook that she wasn't feeling well. She had no idea why until her husband reminded her the local schools started the next day. She was picking up the anxiety and feelings of the children and people everywhere starting school the next day. All that NEGATIVE ENERGY in the AIR! She herself said she HATED school and was glad to not be a kid anymore. Imagine that as an ADULT she still got Back to School Anxiety! That's like PTSD! 

When I was the Student Support Coordinator for my school I was out on the first day to greet as may students as possible. For 4 years I was the main "Administrator" visible that first day, as the principal never arrived before 8 am (After school started at 7:50 am). I answered questions, posed for pictures, passed out candy and did whatever it took to spread kindness. Parents were welcomed inside our Kindergarten room and down to the other classrooms - sometimes it lasted a week. It is school, we had to cut it off because when you drop your children off at school, you leave your rights as a parent at the curb... I was always so torn between 2 worlds.

Homeschooling is a BLESSING. To have your children with you in an environment conducive to learning and surrounded by love and kindness where the rules make sense and fit the family. If you are homeschooling, thinking about homeschooling or mildly interested in possibly homeschooling when the moon is blue... I'd love to talk to you and help you! Contact me!