parenting

Wednesday's
Parent

Do your kids like exotic animals? Want to see a bunch of whale skeletons suspended in mid-air? How about collections of every imaginable beetle, butterfly, and moth? Well, the Harvard Museum of Natural History may be just what you need. And Sundays are FREE for Massachusetts residents if you arrive between 9am and noon.

This interactive map provides a preview of some of the cool exhibits that will have animal-enthusiastic toddlers and preschoolers darting from case to case in wonder at the variety of animals exhibited. Older kids and adults will find the minerals, gems, crystals and bugs fascinating.

On a Sunday morning, this an easy drive of about 30-40 minutes from Westwood. See the website for directions and consider using the parking garage at 52 Oxford St. The website describes how you can purchase a $5 parking pass online or you can take your chances with on-street parking.

It's hardly news, but managing childcare is a challenge in Westwood or anywhere. The Early Childhood Office provides many resources including the Resource Directory (latest hardcopy version available at Main Library) which provides a starting point for researching options...but ultimately, every family is going to have their own requirements and will have to navigate the system as best they can.

When we first moved to Westwood, I worked in Boston and my wife raised our two children...then we had our third. We figured out the whole preschool lottery application process and had good experiences with St. John's Nursery, Dedham Community House, and Mothers' Morning Out. But our needs changed and we now find ourselves evaluating full-time options including Knowledge Beginnings and Next Generation Children's Center.

I'm not going to post "reviews" here but I'm going to start a weekly item I'll call "Wednesday's Parent," where I'll share a tip or two related to resources for families. I'm sure one could do an entire blog on that (and many people have) but I'd like to tag things that are specifically relevant and useful to Westwood. Feel free to send me suggestions...

Having just started my daughter in Kindergarten at Hanlon, and walking my son to his second year at MMO, I am reminded of how, a few years ago, we navigated the new parent choice matrix of preschool. The town website has a link to the Westwood Early Childhood Resource Directory which lists all the programs. I wish I had the time to develop a guide to the process but in general, it begins now if you have a child who will be old enough to start next Fall. There are lotteries at each program, but it is not "competitive" in the sense that the preschools will evaluate your child against other children--it's just that there are a limited number of spaces and siblings will usually take priority.

I wish the schools had a coordinated application process...I know we stressed about the different deadlines and timings--what if we did not get into this program, etc.--but in the end, I believe all the programs are great and it is more a question of convenience. My daughter LOVED her time at St. John's and then we consolidated her and her brother at MMO the next year which they also loved.

There is a provocative article in the Boston Globe about Pressure-cooker kindergarten, that describes the frustration of educators who feel mandated standards and testing are forcing them to make early childhood education a creativity-killing exercise for our kids. Everything I have seen to date with respect to Westwood leads me to believe this is NOT the case here. There is some talk about whether the kids are "ready" or not...and some parents will hold their kids back a year, especially boys with summer birthdays. But that is a whole different world from the insane situations described in some of the "college-prep" kindergartens.

Here's what everyone's been waiting for...

http://www.dailynewstranscript.com/news/x1624774098/Full-day-kindergarten-starts-this-fall

This week's Hometown Weekly has a short column I wrote with some questions and information about the proposed changes to be presented to the school board on Thursday, February 26. I mention a number of resources that I link to below:

• Westwood Schools Web Site - including links to the Full Day K FAQ
• School Committee information - calendar of meetings, meeting agendas, meeting minutes. Unfortunately, the minutes have not been updated since the Jan 15 summary prior to discussion of Full Day K.
• Email Listserv - sign up to be emailed with meeting notices, minutes, etc.
• Early Childhood Program - I spoke with Carol Craig-O'Brian today and learned a great deal more than is published on the website--see below.
• Education411

Today I had the opportunity to attend a "Parent Discussion Meeting on School Readiness" where Peggy Scott, Principal at Martha Jones Elementary School, and Carol Craig-O'Brian from the Early Childhood Office, described what Kindergarten is really like and what "readiness" means. I highly recommend any parent who has questions attend the next session on Wednesday, February 25 at 9:30am at the Islington Community Center (MMO). If you cannot attend that session and are concerned about "readiness" you should call the Principal of your elementary school.

I did not identify myself as "media" and I won't quote anyone here, but I hope relating some of this information will be helpful.

Many parents received a letter on Saturday announcing Superintendent Antonucci's recommendation to move Westwood to a program whereby kindergartners would follow the normal elementary schedule on all days except Wednesday. Wednesday would always be a half-day.

This topic has been discussed here on WestwoodBlog before but now that a formal proposal has been announced, I'd like to share some thoughts and see what others think.

First of all, the program is optional--but I believe everyone in Westwood takes the option. The morning program is free of charge, but the extended program costs $1200/child. This proposal further extends the existing program to a full day and does not add any cost to parents. Also, it is worth noting that kindergarten itself is optional in Massachusetts--if you don't want to send your kids to any program, you can start them off in first grade.

Secondly, and news to me until my wife told me about what a huge topic this is among moms of 4-year olds, parents can elect to "hold out" their kids if they feel the child is not ready for kindergarten. This explains why there can be 6-year olds in class with 5-year olds. I believe there is some concern that extending the program might increase the number of kids who are held out, resulting in more of an age mix, but mostly, this concerns kids who were born in the summer and are close to the cut off age.

The letter we received detailed a series of activities over the past year to develop this proposal. It appears that most of the communication was through the school system...since we are not in the system yet, none of this communication reached us. It would have been helpful to send out letters to parents of future kindergartners in addition to parents of school age children. But the process now provides for feedback and it is more likely everyone will be focused on the issue now that a decision is imminent: Superintendent Antonucci presents his formal recommendation to the School Committee on Thursday, February 26, at 7:30pm in the High School Little Theater.

I like the idea of a full-day program in general and am optimistic that it could provide a comfortable pace for kids with more time and less pressure to get through required material. I read the Full Day Kindergarten: School Committee Presentation posted on the town website, but the presentation is mostly bullet points without the context of an in-person meeting.

One thing I believe would be helpful in this discussion is a "before and after" document that outlines a typical day for the kids. I am hoping more time means more play. But I don't really know what the kids do right now and what is necessary to get them ready for first grade. When our daughter Sharon was at St. Johns Nursery last year, I remember going to a Parent's Night where director Mal Tennihan gave a presentation that both reassured me that the kids were not in some kind of learning boot camp for overachieving parents, but that there was a solid plan behind the activities the kids were doing designed to help them develop social and attention skills to be ready for a more formal environment. I think more time has the potential to allow a more natural pace and less pressure and I'd like to see what that means for the kids so I have something to compare against.

This post ran earlier this year, but over the past few days, there has been more information posted in the comments. I'm promoting this back to the front page so others can find this information...

I have mixed feeling about the article in the Globe [May 25, 2008] about the state's initiative to promote full-day kindergarten. On the one hand it seems a bit lame that you only get a short program that everyone extends an hour anyway...but I can't imagine wanting to keep 5-year olds in a day long teaching class. It would be a little more convenient for us to have a longer session for our daughter next year, but I'm not expecting kindergarten to be "teaching" much anyway. It should be fun and an opportunity for the kids to develop social skills, not a drill to teach them "material" they "need" to prepare for school. I think the thing they need the most is the ability to sit through class without being bored out of their brains and acting up. I never completely mastered that skill myself. Hopefully school has changed in a good way since I was a kid.

Westwood’s first annual Pan-Mass Challenge Kids Ride is set for Sunday, June 8 (rain or shine) at the Martha Jones School (9:00-11:30 A.M.). The 1-mile kid’s route will be closed to traffic; veteran PMC riders will be out to guide the big kids through the 6-mile course; and face painters, bike decorators, a DJ and moon-bounce are ready to greet the tyke riders.

The mission of the ride is to give our kids a chance to make a real difference in the fight against cancer, while enjoying the athletic event and many fun activities. Please visit kids.pmc.org and choose "Westwood" under the kid’s ride to register your riders by May 25 or to volunteer to help either on or before event day.