I have to vent! Preschool Halloween parties!

[marcyinPA]

Agree! I work in a special ed preschool class. When parents want to bring in birthday treats, we ask them to bring unfrosted cupcakes or cookies. Some of our kids are picky eaters and don't even eat sweets. Others are very messy eaters and will smear more frosting, pudding or yogurt than they will eat. It's fine if the parent wants to share a treat and take pictures of their child while we sing Happy Birthday. But with a 15 minute snack period, we don't have time for a full-blown party or meal. And with our two class sessions scheduled back-to-back, we don't have time for extra cleaning. One group eats and leaves while another group is arriving. We have to keep things simple to stay on schedule, keep our kids focused and keep behavior in check.

Although we are not a special ed room, we do have a lot of children with special needs. One of them is currently being evaluated, and another one we need to conference with parents about. We actually have two more (another set of twins, God help us!...that will make two sets in one class!) starting in two weeks, and they will both come with a TSS. Many of our children do not eat the sweet snacks either. We threw out a lot. We had another "party" today, and it was much better....you know what they liked the best? The fruit salad a mom made...and she cut up all the fruit into tiny pieces. It was wonderful! They ate that and left the donut holes on the plate!

Our "party" days are normal, regular days, and we have our "party snack" during the last 15 minutes of the morning. That is our normal snack time. Our time is extremely limited.

As for clean up time...quite frankly, I only get paid for 15 minutes after the children leave. That is my normal "clean up the room" time and get ready for the next day. I am not very happy about spending that time scraping chocolate pudding off of chairs, tables and floors, even if it is only a few times a school year. Thanks, but no thanks.

 

[disfan07]

As for clean up time...quite frankly, I only get paid for 15 minutes after the children leave. That is my normal "clean up the room" time and get ready for the next day. I am not very happy about spending that time scraping chocolate pudding off of chairs, tables and floors, even if it is only a few times a school year. Thanks, but no thanks

But see, personally, I dont see that as a reason to be upset either. We dont get paid for anytime after 6 PM. We stay with the kids until they get picked up (until 6:15...after 6:15 its the administrators resposibility), we have to clean up afterwards, etc. We are all routinely there until 6:30 sometimes 6:45 depending on what projects we've done, how many kids were left at the end of the day, etc. I see that as part of the job. We can agree to disagree but seriously, another 10 minutes or so spent cleaning never killed anyone.

Although we are not a special ed room, we do have a lot of children with special needs. One of them is currently being evaluated, and another one we need to conference with parents about. We actually have two more (another set of twins, God help us!...that will make two sets in one class!) starting in two weeks, and they will both come with a TSS. Many of our children do not eat the sweet snacks either. We threw out a lot. We had another "party" today, and it was much better....you know what they liked the best? The fruit salad a mom made...and she cut up all the fruit into tiny pieces. It was wonderful! They ate that and left the donut holes on the plate!

We have spec. ed kids as well. We have 3 two year old classes. Each class has 2 or 3 special needs kids. Obviously, this is not something we would ever agree on. I personally see it as a fun thing for the kids and just remind myself of that anytime I dont want to be doing it and I dont see what the big deal is.

Maybe it's regional, but most of the church-run, non-daycare preschools around here have schedules very similar to ours.

Maybe. In Northern Virginia, the church and sunagogues-run preschools were all 9-1 three or five days a week. Anything less than that was not called a preschool.

The same goes for th area I am in now. An actual "preschool" around here is 3 or 5 days a week 9-1.

 

[cdsmom]

Well, I'm a parent of a 3 yr old who attends preschool (w/ degree holding teachers as well) and have been very busy this week participating in all his Halloween activities. His school participates in a no-peanut, healthy eating program and parents' are even advised during PT meetings that any candy or unhealthy sweets packed in lunchboxes will be sent home.
However, this week was an exception and they did get gummy worms 1 day and today's Halloween parade-decorated pumpkin cookies and had fun. Did I have a problem, not at all. I am also part of the Parent Activity Committee and we have planned a Halloween Carnival for them tomorrow and one of the parent asked if everyone would be okay with cupcakes in addition to the potluck? We all agreed that it would be fine....with the reasoning that they normally don't get all this throughout the year. For my son personally, he doesn't get much sweets so he couldn't even finish his cookie at school...just had a taste, then he said he was done.
I just don't see why it would be so bad especially if it's only seasonally.

 

[Nancyg56]

Okay, see I wouldnt consider that preschool. As a PP said, that would be called moms day out.

For 2 year olds at our preschool it is 3 or 5 days a week for 4 hours per day (9-1). so 12-20 hours per week. and than we have daycare as well that goes until 6 PM.

We are definitely a preschool and not a mom's morning out. We are state-licensed and all of our teachers have bachelor's degrees in El Ed or Early Childhood Ed. We have a structured morning, with lesson plans and the whole nine yards. We do parent teacher conferences, etc. Back in the day,we called ourselves a 'nursery school' but have gone to the term preschool.


Maybe it's regional, but most of the church-run, non-daycare preschools around here have schedules very similar to ours.

My DGD's preschool had this kind of schedule. She went two days a week for 2.5 hours when she was 3 and 3 days a week, same hours, when she ws 4. My DD would never have sent her full time and she definately was not using the program as a mom's day out. WHen seh wanted time away she used a sitter, not preschool.

 

[tigger813]

For my kindergartner's class the room parents sent out a list of specific things they wanted for the afternoon party and we emailed back our responses. For the morning each child was asked to bring in one salty and one sweet snack and they gave examples.

Yes, you may want to let the parents send in what they want but give examples so they know what you are looking for better.

 

[disfan07]

My DGD's preschool had this kind of schedule. She went two days a week for 2.5 hours when she was 3 and 3 days a week, same hours, when she ws 4. My DD would never have sent her full time and she definately was not using the program as a mom's day out. WHen seh wanted time away she used a sitter, not preschool

Thats why I said it probably is regional. When I was growing up I went to preschool 9-1 starting at 2 years old and when I was working at a preschool in teh same area, it was 9-1 and every other program I knew of was also 9-1. When people talked preschool in our area it was always 9-1.

We had many programs (inlcuding one at our synagogue) that we called "moms day out" that was for 2 and younger twice a week that was 2 1/2 hours which yes, some parents did use them for "me-time". They figured, great socialization for the child and a few hours to run errands, etc. And while they were run by people with early childhood degrees, they weren't preschool.

I'm not saying under any circumstance that what you're talking about is not a preschoo. I'm just saying that my experience from where I grew up and worked, programs with those hours were different and not called preschools

 

[marcyinPA]

We have spec. ed kids as well. We have 3 two year old classes. Each class has 2 or 3 special needs kids. Obviously, this is not something we would ever agree on. I personally see it as a fun thing for the kids and just remind myself of that anytime I dont want to be doing it and I dont see what the big deal is.

Just to clarify....I don't think having special needs kids in my class is a bad thing. I love them all! They are all great kids and all offer their own special gifts. I was merely trying to give the poster I quoted a picture of what our class dynamics are. Twelve kids, two sets of twins, both sets are on the spectrum, one set coming with a TSS, one set not yet, but being evaluated. Another child needing an eval but parents haven't been spoken to yet. And then the rest are just being two, with all that comes with being two.

With the ratio of 2 to 12, and with the needs presented, we are VERY VERY busy. When faced with an additional task of cutting grapes or cleaning up huge messes, the ratio becomes 1 to 12, and it can be really insane!

In all honesty, we've never had a year like this, where you literally can't take the time to blow your own nose. It's....interesting!

 

[luvsJack]

We are definitely a preschool and not a mom's morning out. We are state-licensed and all of our teachers have bachelor's degrees in El Ed or Early Childhood Ed. We have a structured morning, with lesson plans and the whole nine yards. We do parent teacher conferences, etc. Back in the day,we called ourselves a 'nursery school' but have gone to the term preschool.

Our 2's go either one or two mornings for 2.5 hours a morning. The 3's go either 2 or 3 mornings, for 2.5 hours, and the 4's go either 3, 4, or 5 mornings for 2.5 hours. We also have an extended care program for early a.m. and afternoon/early evening hours.

Maybe it's regional, but most of the church-run, non-daycare preschools around here have schedules very similar to ours.

I would say it must be regional. Here there isn't a lot of difference in "child care center" or "day care" and "nursery school" "preschool", "learning center", etc.

Here ALL facilities are required to have state approved curriculums, teachers with at least a AAS degree in child development and additional training each year (more for the director). Even though the name of our center was "XXXX child care center" we were 100% equal to the "XXX Preschool" down the street. We also had lesson plans, parent/teacher conferences, teachers were evaluated in the classroom every year, and everything else that goes with preschool/childcare/ etc.


Our schedule was close to an all day Kindergarten, with more time spent on outside play. We had children that came for mornings only, all day and a few that came for afternoons only. We had structured "learing time" or classroom time each morning, outside play, lunch, nap/planning time, afternoon structured classsroom time, snack, outside play time.

Mother's Day Out would be more equal to the schedule you describe but probably more consistant in what you would describe as "day care".

Its just a difference of terms that means different things in different areas. I had more time with my students and could do things a bit different than you are able to in the time you have. On party days "planning time" was "cleaning time". and time to pack those bags I was describing earlier.


Just wanted to add: I have would never consider how messy something is as a reason not to do it. The messier something was, the more the kids enjoyed it and if we (the staff) relaxed on worrying about the cleaning, the more we enjoyed it. Of course, this is coming from someone who fingerpainted with chocolate pudding (no worries of eating paint!) with a two year old class and with a one year old class. And have done this same activity with my dgd. Messes can be cleaned.