Thursday, June 11, 2009

這學年的最後一天! Last Day of School!

Finally! It's the last day of school. Summer vacation officially began at 12:47 PM today. I was at my kids' school all day, distributing the raffle prizes from the Box Tops raffles. The grade 5 students had their graduation ceremony today and everyone was all dressed up for their special event. My daughter will be graduating next year, so I paid extra attention to what the girls were wearing. I know grade 5 is an awkward age (between a girl and a teenager), so it's hard for the girls to "dress up" for this special event. But with all the merchandise available in the stores, I fail to understand why I did not see a pretty dress on anyone. Some dresses are pretty, but looked wrong on 10- or 11-year old girls. A lot of the girls wore dresses with spaghetti straps, but those dresses typically do not look good on chubby bodies. At some point, I think, parents should exert their parental guidance/control and tell these girls to wear something more appropriate. Most of the families in our school can afford to buy their girls a special dress for this occasion, so there is no excuse if the girls look like miniature drag-queens. OK. I have to stop being a fashion police!

All the room moms are busy today. They have to prepare a special year-end party for the kids which included games and food. Room moms also have to prepare the end-of-the-year gift for the teacher. Usually, parents pay the room mom a class fee at the beginning of the school year which should cover all the parties (basically Christmas and End-of-the-Year parties, but there could be more parties) and the teacher's Christmas and the year-end gift. Besides planning and executing parties, a room mom has to coordinate volunteer schedule with the teacher. When other moms don't have the time to help out in class, usually the room mom would have to step in to help the teacher. It's a thankless job that I would never want to do. My son's grade 1 room mom is a very nice lady. She had just moved into the area, but she's enthusiastic and volunteered to be the room mom when no one wanted the job. She did a fabulous job this year.

The plan for today was, before recess, all the grade 1 kids would be together and do different relay races in the field. Of course, we needed parent volunteers to come in and run the games. 3 of our dads volunteered for the job.

After I distributed all the Box Tops raffle prizes, I decided to stay on campus (I didn't want to loose my parking spot in front of the school) and help out in my son's grade 1 class. After recess, the room mom came with all the food and snacks for the party. Our grade 1 teacher suggested a hot-dog party. She took out an electric grill and one of the parents started to grill the hot dogs. While we got the food ready, the kids in our class were watching a Little Rascal movie while the class next door was doing a bingo game.

The room mom for the class next door is the same room mom for my daughter's grade 4 class. She had to do my daughter's class party (her son is in my daughter's class) yesterday so she can focus on her daughter's grade 1 class. Last year, she had 3 kids in this school. I had no idea how she managed to be the room mom for all 3 classes. Some moms can do it all!

The kids brought home all their class work -- the school supplies, drawings, art projects, and writings. The smart thing would be to sort all this out in the next few days, otherwise, it would not get done and these things will pile up.

My kids got their report cards today. My daughter who struggled through grade 4 got a stellar report card. My son who sailed through grade 1 easily got a mediocre report card. I am not sure what it was--He knew all his subjects and was good at doing his homework. His report card showed that there were several areas that he was still "developing". I guess we will continue to work over the summer in those areas that the teacher thought he was weak in. But in all honesty, I think he's doing pretty good. Am I so blind that I don't see how he's lacking in certain areas?! I guess I am baffled that when he can do 3-digit addition (with carryovers) on the worksheets I make him do, why does the teacher assessed him as being insecure with number manipulations (addition and subtraction) for numbers under 20?! Maybe he's weak in subtractions? I don't like report card that doesn't tell the true picture of how a child is doing in school.

As for my daughter, she's strong in math and weak in reading and writing. She got an "O" (for outstanding) effort grade for reading and writing and a "S" (for satisfactory) for math. She said she worked harder in math and not so hard in reading and writing (she hates writing assignments). She doesn't understand her report card, she thought the grades should be the other way around. It's possible that the teacher had a different perception of her work. In any case, I told my kids that the assessments they received in their report cards don't really matter. What mattered is that they worked hard and tried to improve to their best ability. I told them, as long as they tried their best, they both received an "A" from me!

今天是這學期的最後一天。明天開始就放暑假了。 我昨晚又搞到整晚沒睡。一開始是在準備摸彩後的獎品, 總供有六十七個獎項。今天一早就要把獎品發完。接著我又花了兩個小時的時間彙集所有 “台美小筆友” 的信件。不知不覺的就已經天亮了, 乾脆就不去睡了。

到了學校後, 趕緊把獎品分發完畢三後,我趕到兒子的教室幫忙。幾天前, 兒子班上的班媽 (class mom) 就用 email 事先通知我們今天的行程表。從8:45 AM 至10:15 AM, 一年級的老師要辦個小型的接力比賽。其實都是家長到學校幫忙看場, 其實老師都在教室裏整理東西,也沒到操場上跟小朋友同樂。十點半, 我們的班媽帶了一大堆吃的東西到學校來。在場的家長就幫忙把食物擺好。有個爸爸就開始烤熱狗。老師放了一部電影給小朋友看。貼心的班媽準備了爆米花給小朋友做看電影的點心。中午每個小朋友一人一條熱狗, 一包薯片, 一包果汁及一串葡萄。吃完熱狗後, 還有兩種餅乾可以吃。好豐盛的午餐。看得我的肚子好餓喔! 好在我那兒子咬了兩口熱狗就不吃了。他把整盤的食物都交給我。如是我不在的話,他是肯定把整盤的食物都丟進垃圾桶裏的! 其實, 我的肚子再餓, 我也捨不得吃那盤食物。我知道我的女兒下課後肚子會很餓, 剛好可以吃這盤食物。反正我也不會有精神帶他們外食。

女兒的班派對昨天就舉行了。 因為她的班媽也有一個女兒在一年級, 所以這班媽無法負責在同時辦兩個班派對, 只好在昨天就辦好她四年級兒子的班派對。做班媽是件吃力不討好的事情。班媽(或班爸)要幫老師找其他家長到教室服務。最難的事可能就是收班費了。開學後不久做班媽的就要收班費。這班費是要用來辦派對及買老師的聖誕節及學期末的禮物,可是有的家長還是會不願意付這筆錢給班媽。有些家長就是怪。她們認為我們讀的是公立小學, 所以經該是免費用的。真的是讓班媽很難做事。某些事情還是合群比較好!



No comments:

Post a Comment