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Today is Ana's in-class birthday party.
May. 17th, 2010 12:21 pm
Now, last year some parents complained about the frequency and hype of the parties, so they have some rules about them this year, one of which I ran accidentally afoul of: Only cupcakes.
As I'd lugged chips and juice all the way over there, I just kinda came out with "Well-save-it-for-the-next-publishing-party" and ran out of there, trusting that the secretary was polite and/or underpaid enough that she wouldn't chase after me. (Aha! I was correct!)
Now, the reason I was given for this, however, kinda irked me: "Well, we want to get right back to learning, so we only set aside about 20 minutes for the party".
What's annoying is that I can think of several ways to mitigate this "too much party, not enough school!" problem without keeping me from bringing in some Veggie Booty, or keeping the kids from playing 7 Up in the classroom.
1. They can do what my elementary school used to do and schedule class parties as the VERY LAST event in the day. Then it's not bumping up into learning time, it's bumping up into dismissal and you have some wiggle room. This strikes me as the most practical suggestion, and I don't know why they don't do that already. But it strikes me as practical because this is what I'm used to, so maybe there's a reason they don't do this. Or maybe they do and were just making stuff up?
2. I believe - having walked in on Ana's class once while they were doing this! - they schedule shared reading (aka "storytime") in the afternoon. They can stretch the party out into storytime and allow the kids to munch on their cupcakes while reading, thus effectively extending the "party" without cutting into the learning too much.
3. They can not have as many parties as they have, for things like writing a book or getting so-and-so many box tops. In fairness, they've gotten better about this. THIS was the big problem last year, where they were having parties every week, or more than one, even.
4. They can put the kibbosh on individual birthday parties and instead set aside a larger hunk of time once a month for ALL the kids who were born in that month (summer kids could double up with kids in September or in June). Instead of having about 480 minutes of birthday party yearly (if everybody in the class has an in-class party), they could have only 300 or 350 minutes yearly, but in larger chunks. This would also spread the cost out a bit, as one family could pick up the cupcakes, another the juice, and so on.
I have nothing against following the rules (seriously! I won't do this again!), but I think 20 minutes for a party, rush-rush-rush, is kinda paltry. At that, they'd be better off not having parties at all. (That, of course, is another option, number 5 on the list.)
As I'd lugged chips and juice all the way over there, I just kinda came out with "Well-save-it-for-the-next-publishing-party" and ran out of there, trusting that the secretary was polite and/or underpaid enough that she wouldn't chase after me. (Aha! I was correct!)
Now, the reason I was given for this, however, kinda irked me: "Well, we want to get right back to learning, so we only set aside about 20 minutes for the party".
What's annoying is that I can think of several ways to mitigate this "too much party, not enough school!" problem without keeping me from bringing in some Veggie Booty, or keeping the kids from playing 7 Up in the classroom.
1. They can do what my elementary school used to do and schedule class parties as the VERY LAST event in the day. Then it's not bumping up into learning time, it's bumping up into dismissal and you have some wiggle room. This strikes me as the most practical suggestion, and I don't know why they don't do that already. But it strikes me as practical because this is what I'm used to, so maybe there's a reason they don't do this. Or maybe they do and were just making stuff up?
2. I believe - having walked in on Ana's class once while they were doing this! - they schedule shared reading (aka "storytime") in the afternoon. They can stretch the party out into storytime and allow the kids to munch on their cupcakes while reading, thus effectively extending the "party" without cutting into the learning too much.
3. They can not have as many parties as they have, for things like writing a book or getting so-and-so many box tops. In fairness, they've gotten better about this. THIS was the big problem last year, where they were having parties every week, or more than one, even.
4. They can put the kibbosh on individual birthday parties and instead set aside a larger hunk of time once a month for ALL the kids who were born in that month (summer kids could double up with kids in September or in June). Instead of having about 480 minutes of birthday party yearly (if everybody in the class has an in-class party), they could have only 300 or 350 minutes yearly, but in larger chunks. This would also spread the cost out a bit, as one family could pick up the cupcakes, another the juice, and so on.
I have nothing against following the rules (seriously! I won't do this again!), but I think 20 minutes for a party, rush-rush-rush, is kinda paltry. At that, they'd be better off not having parties at all. (That, of course, is another option, number 5 on the list.)
