One of the great joys of being a single parent is daycare. If we were all still living in caves then this would not be a problem because the clan would take care of it, but then again, the murder rate would be much higher because most of us can't really live in that close of a proximity to our families.
This summer my son has been going to a Summer Enrichment Program. Sounds fancy, huh? According to the glossy brochure they were going to do education combined with outdoor fun. Sounds good. I noticed that the kids really were spending a lot of time at recess and I asked my son if they were doing any school work. He said no. He is in the gifted program at school, and he really likes school and doesn't think of some things as work, so I clarified. Had he done any Math? No. Science? No. Art? No. Turns out they do 30 minutes of silent reading each day. For the kids that can read, like my son, that is better than nothing, I suppose. It is not, however, what they advertised. I asked the counselor. No idea what I was talking about. I showed the counselor the lesson plan in the brochure. She explained that yes, they did that at the start of the summer, but the kids got tired of it, so they just let the kids choose. Wouldn't you know, the kids picked recess. Golly. Really? I was a bit annoyed and said, "Yes, of course they picked recess, but that is why there is an adult in the room." The counselor asked if I wanted my son to be given work and I said yes. The next day, just before I got there to pick my son up after work, the counselor handed my son a stack of "homework." She told him it didn't matter if he finished it or brought it back to her, but he had to take it home. The "homework" was a stack of coloring sheets. They were supposed to be studying space and my son got a stack of pictures of the space shuttle, satellites, etc. to take home and color. Nice.
Alex joined the summer program with just a couple of weeks to go before the end of summer. My choices were to pitch a fit and make them start teaching, pull him out, or ignore it. Apparently, the other parents had no problem with their kids being at recess all day, so if I pitched a fit then just my son would get singled out for 2 weeks of teaching by annoyed teachers. If I pulled him out then I had to locate another provider. This one is located very close to extended family that can come and get him in an emergency, so I really don't want to move him. I chose to ignore it. Next summer I will be pitching a fit for sure.
This summer my son has been going to a Summer Enrichment Program. Sounds fancy, huh? According to the glossy brochure they were going to do education combined with outdoor fun. Sounds good. I noticed that the kids really were spending a lot of time at recess and I asked my son if they were doing any school work. He said no. He is in the gifted program at school, and he really likes school and doesn't think of some things as work, so I clarified. Had he done any Math? No. Science? No. Art? No. Turns out they do 30 minutes of silent reading each day. For the kids that can read, like my son, that is better than nothing, I suppose. It is not, however, what they advertised. I asked the counselor. No idea what I was talking about. I showed the counselor the lesson plan in the brochure. She explained that yes, they did that at the start of the summer, but the kids got tired of it, so they just let the kids choose. Wouldn't you know, the kids picked recess. Golly. Really? I was a bit annoyed and said, "Yes, of course they picked recess, but that is why there is an adult in the room." The counselor asked if I wanted my son to be given work and I said yes. The next day, just before I got there to pick my son up after work, the counselor handed my son a stack of "homework." She told him it didn't matter if he finished it or brought it back to her, but he had to take it home. The "homework" was a stack of coloring sheets. They were supposed to be studying space and my son got a stack of pictures of the space shuttle, satellites, etc. to take home and color. Nice.
Alex joined the summer program with just a couple of weeks to go before the end of summer. My choices were to pitch a fit and make them start teaching, pull him out, or ignore it. Apparently, the other parents had no problem with their kids being at recess all day, so if I pitched a fit then just my son would get singled out for 2 weeks of teaching by annoyed teachers. If I pulled him out then I had to locate another provider. This one is located very close to extended family that can come and get him in an emergency, so I really don't want to move him. I chose to ignore it. Next summer I will be pitching a fit for sure.
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