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Community Corner

Mom Talk: School's Out For the Summer

No more packing snacks and juice boxes - for a few months anyway.

Some of your kids may already be out of school.  My kids finish up this week.  I feel a little lighter.  For as happy as they are, I guarantee you I match their happiness and trump it.   I am ready to be done with spelling lists, math facts- in -a -flash, packing snacks and juice boxes, signing permission slips, and remembering to send in checks for hot lunch on Mondays.

Both of my daughters had wonderful teachers this year.  Alex was in her second year at the peer preschool with the public schools at .  Her teacher and the aides have been so warm.  It has been great to see her go from having a speech delay when she started the program in September 2010 to actually being a peer for the past year and a half.  Her teacher knew enough to let Alex go at her own pace.  What we all knew was it was never that she couldn’t talk, it was that she wouldn’t, until she was ready.  Her teacher helped provide a safe environment for Alex to feel comfortable to do this on her own.  And now, she is a chatterbox that they have used as a model for other children in the program.

I can’t say enough about Sammy’s second grade teacher at .  She was so wonderful with her.  After all of the issues that we had with her first grade teacher, I was so worried that my daughter would never feel comfortable at school.  Well I had nothing to worry about.  She was warm and funny, and really got to know who my daughter was and what worked for her; her interests, and how she learned.  She understood that my daughter’s biggest fear is speaking/performing in front of a group/class, and while she still had to read out loud, for classmates, and for the teacher, it was done with sensitivity.

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I hope that next year’s teachers are as wonderful for my kids.  But I am honestly not going to worry about it for a while.  I know who Alex’s teacher will be as she will be at for kindergarten (you can go even if you aren’t baptized or Catholic as long as you pay) for the year before going back into the Enfield Public School system.  That would be because Enfield has not joined the bandwagon of full day kindergarten.  (Another subject for another article… and trust me I have my opinion on it.)  I figure we will either learn Sammy’s teacher for next year when we get her report card or sometime in the summer like last year. 

So it’s summertime, and the living is easy… Well, my husband and I will still be working full time, so it isn’t THAT easy for my Mom trying to keep them busy and playing chauffer while watching my 2 year old son as well.  We have swim lessons set up at , four different bible camps (of three different religions, we aren’t picky, they are free, the kids like them and have fun,) and 2 weeks of day camp in Broad Brook. 

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Let’s hear it for summer!  I don’t have to buy juice boxes at until Labor Day!

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