Thank you for your wonderful post! My oldest will start kindergarten at Catholic school this fall and I’m very nervous! I grew up as a latch key kid going to public schools and have no idea what to expect for my daughter and our family. Your post is so very helpful and I look forward to seeing if readers have more advice to give. Thanks!

My youngest will be starting kindergarten in public school this fall. He is the last of 3 and the other 2 attend public school also.  We are not lucky enough to have a Catholic school in the area and I do NOT have the calling in me to homeschool. 

My advice to moms with children going to school is to be a presence in the classroom and to the teacher whenever possible.  Have an open dialog with the teacher and with your child as to what is going on in the class. 

We are lucky to have a small and very good school system.  Any problems over the years have been minor.  There have been some not so good influences over the years, but our family is close and our children are very vocal with us.  Including the 15yo who so far has done a tremendous job avoiding peer pressure.  I feel it is because our family has always been open with each other. 

The school years can be scary, but they can also be very good.  They will help to prepare our children to live on their own one day.

I don’t have any advice for riding the bus because we live within walking distance of the schools in our town, so my children haven’t had to ride.  I do feel kindergarten is young to ride it though, unless there are older siblings to watch out for them.

I am curious to hear other comments as well.

My children do ride the bus to publc school.  THey love the bus and my older two started riding the bus in Kindergarten.  We are very fortunate to have fabulous bus driver who we love.  That does make a difference.  Because I have two younger childfren, I have not had the opportunity to volunteer in the classrooms but hope that will change in the new year.  Not volunteering in the classroom has helped me not bepexposed to the gossip.  Our neighborhood all attend the same oublic school.  I do not hang out at the busstop for that same reason, I do not wnat to get drawn into gossip.  Hoever, I do sometimes think I am missing out on information I should know for the safety and well-being of my kids.  But, I had decided that the Lord will let me know what I need to know when I need to know it.  Catholic schools are very expensive here and they are not close to where we live.  I too do not feel called to homeschool but pray that a Catholic school opens closer to us in the new future.  Maybe at least some of my kids would benefit from Catholic school education

Beautiful.  Ditto the over-volunteering remarks.  My experience in my children’s Catholic elementary school is that it is often the parents with ill-behaved children who feel the most need to hover around school, volunteering for everything so as to counter-balance their child’s problems in the classroom.  Focusing on the home and raising up well-behaved, well-disciplined children is the best gift you can give your Catholic school.

I would suggest to any parent who has a child starting school to open up the lines of communication with the teacher before the school year starts.  Ask her if she has a wish list for the class so you can help out with stocking the class room.

If you can volunteer to help out with classroom parties, do so.  Even if it’s just sending in a bag of chips, it’s still a big help and your child will be happy that you helped out with the party. 

Also, be prepared that eventually your child may get a teacher that either doesn’t like him/her or doesn’t like you.  Your instinct may be to call the local Catholic (or public) school and switch your child, but if you can help yourself, don’t.  We had a rough 1st grade year last year and our parish’s school wasn’t taking new students.  As difficult as it was to deal with a teacher who didn’t like my child or me, it was an important life lesson learned for my daughter.  She learned how to cope with and survive a teacher who didn’t care for her.  It was tough, but we both came out stronger.  And don’t believe everything your child says about the teacher….chances are your little darling is going to lie about things once they realize that you can’t know everything they do while they’re at school (this is why you need to establish communication with the teacher early on and make sure your child is aware of it).

Thanks for all the thoughts!  My oldest starts kindergarten in the fall and it’s helpful to hear from been-there-done-that moms.  I attended my first preschool field trip today and had a lot of fun spending more time with the moms and 5 year olds.  I’m finally getting to know people now that the year’s almost done.  I have a three year old and generally don’t leave him to attend classroom activities so I was extra-grateful for the opportunity today.  We’re at a pre-k through 12th grade Catholic prep school, so I’ll likely be with these same families for at least the next 16 years as our kids attend there.

We made an overseas move when my daughter was four and should have been in preschool.  We couldn’t get into the International School at that time because there was a waiting list.  So, I kept her home for that year and cherished my time with her and her three little brothers.  I tried to work on a few ‘academic’ things as her school is quite rigorous now in Kindergarten and has them reading and writing rather quickly…actually, you might want to check on that.  Had I known what a high level the Kindergarten kids were entering in, I might have done even more work in this area to prevent her from having to take such a huge jump into reading….
Anyway, socialization was not a problem as I think her three brothers help her learn to socialize, get along, cooperate, etc…    It was a little hard at first as everyone in her Kindergarten class knew each other from preschool, but she quickly made great friends and had an amazing year.
Good luck with your decision!!