My children have started going to a before and after school program for the time being. It's just for three weeks while we are homeless (okay, temp digs) but if you talked to them about it, it's a lifetime of pure, rotten, evil stank.
They hate it. How COULD we DARE do this to them?
Since we are currently living nowhere near the school district, my husband drives them to school and picks them up each day. Their new school is actually like five minutes from his work so in that way, it's peachy. The problem which necessitated a school age program is two fold. One problem was that he was arriving later than he needed to each morning. The second problem was that there are two different dismissal times for their grades, a half hour apart, and pretty early in the afternoon. This meant my husband had to leave work pretty much after his lunch, pick up one, sit around, pick up the other. He was working half days at best.
We checked into the school and they had a before and after program with space. Excellent news! They also were willing to take us for just the short time period. Better still! They told me about activities they do, healthy snacks, outdoor play. As an ECE myself, it was pretty familiar stuff to me and sounded good.
My daughters, however, are not feelin' the love.
Even though I've owned and run a home daycare for 10 years, my daughters have always had the luxury of being at home. They've never had to attend a program anywhere else. They would get off the bus after school and hang out in their own home with some down time. They are finding the day very long right now.
I've told them that some kids have gone to daycare (horror of horrors!) their entire lives! That for some kids, EVERY day is "that long" including all summer! They said they don't care about other kids. Nice that I've raised such compassionate human beings.
The program itself is fun. They see their friends for even longer, they colour and do crafts, they run around outside like crazy people. The issues we are having are getting out of the door on time (ie before the sun is even awake!) in the morning, and having motivation to do homework in a swift and efficient manner at night. It's taking forever to get the work done, and then coupled with dinner later and baths means it's also a late bedtime. See the cycle I'm drawing out for you here? Yep, earlier, crankier mornings on less sleep. It's fun times in my house! Or..whatever.
I hope, actually, that this is a wake up call for them to realize how good they've had it, always having a Mom at home. That message has two more weeks to sink in so I kind of DO hope the days are long for them and they are thankful and appreciative once their hellish daycare days come to an end.
A girl can dream, can't she?
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