life, apparently

Today is the first day of our new school situation. TheKid goes to NewSchool 3 days and week and stays home 2 days a week. Unfortunately this means that I also have to stay home with him those 2 days. (Temporary. This is temporary I remind myself.) I am not patient, I am easily bored, and I am scared to death of staying home with my kid for 2 whole days in a row every week. This, my friends, will be very interesting.

Frequent readers (all 3 of you) know that we seem to attract crazy daycare situations. My sisters says it is the I live in - she called it the daycare outlaw state because they seem to have extremely lax regulation on child care centers. We began TVschool Jan 1 after GreatestBabysitterEver went off to college. We asked several questions when visiting TVschool and everything seemed quite nice (obviously). Here is what we learned in the 2 short months that TheKid attended TVschool:

They watch TV until everyone arrives (say 7-8am), then during breakfast (8-9:30ish), during lunch (11:00-12ish), then during snack (3-4). They nap from 12ish-3. So basically we were paying hundreds of dollars a month for TV and a nap. And, if that isn't bad enough (obviously there are 12 other sets of parents who don't seem to mind), they don't even watch what I consider to be age appropriate, educational TV. Instead they watched movies (others that I cannot link to because I don't know what they are) and Barney (no offense but I hate that purple dinosaur). I told the director that they amount of TV these kids watch is criminal. TheKid does like to watch TV but we do it rarely (like when I need a break or he is being a grouch). He often sat at the table with his back to the TV and they actively encouraged him to move chairs or turn around so he could see the TV. WTF? (Lesson: when you ask "how often do you watch TV?" and the director says "rarely" but there is a TV in every room, she is lying)

The "breakfast" served by the school consists of a handful of dry sugar cereal (Lesson: when you ask "what do you typically eat for breakfast?" and the director says "cereal" don't assume it is the same non-sugar-coated, whole grain, cereal you serve at home)

99% of the words spoke in that room took the form "NO [fill in child's name]!" Kids are mischevious. They do things you'd rather them not, things they know they shouldn't do, things that are mildly dangerous, etc. I know this. But yelling NO all day will not solve that (apparently TV does, eh?).

They don't read books everyday and rarely listen to music. I guess it interferes with their TV programs. (Lesson: don't assume that so-called-"schools" read everyday just because you see books)

etc.

Needless to say, we decided to leave the minute we walked in the door. For a while the plan was to quit after my job interview tour around the world and worry about finding daycare later. Somehow we TheHusband found a new daycare at another college (not mine) that had an open spot. The problem is that it is part-time and expensive. He is the youngest (by a year in some cases) which I think will be nice (he is learning things that he wouldn't normally learn at this age) but it is also a little scary (one of the things he is learning is to cut with scissors).

I hope this latest installment of the DayCareWoes is the last.

Labels: day care woes