Hooray for school!

My entire morning consisted of school orientations. Here’s a quick overview:

8:30 — leave for school
9:00 — Kindergarten orientation begins for C
10:20 — leave school
11:00 — hurry up and eat lunch
11:30 — leave for school
12:00 — 3rd grade orientation begins for B
12:45 — leave school

We survived. Thank goodness we live close to the school.

C’s Kindergarten teacher seems great. We’ll call her Mrs. G. She is currently on maternity leave after having a baby a few weeks ago. She’ll return to school the second week of October. C will have Mrs. H as his substitute for the first month of school.

This is not a perfect world. BUT in a perfect world I would not have it this way. He’d have ONE teacher for the entire school year. Instead, in our imperfect world, he’ll get accustomed to big boy school with one teacher and then finish out the rest of the year with another teacher. This will be a learning experience for everyone.

Then there’s B’s teacher. We’ll call her Mrs. W. She seems like a great teacher as well. Guess what? She’s pregnant! She is due at the end of October. Guess who her substitute will be during her maternity leave? You got it! Mrs. H!

Both boys will have the same substitute teacher during their “real” teachers’ maternity leaves.

Now, I have mixed emotions about all of this. On one hand I want my children to have the best possible education and that means having teachers that are ALWAYS there for them. I want my kids to be their kids and to care for them as if they were their own.

On the other hand I am a mother and I know how important those first weeks and months are with your new baby. You want to be there for their every cry. Their every nap. Their every feeding. Their every poopy diaper. It’s such a great feeling being with your precious baby. And I am one of those that could not leave my kids and go back to work. So I understand how hard it must be for these teachers to be put in this very situation. Leaving their babies and coming back to work.

I am sitting the fence on how I really feel. Am I putting too much emphasis on the importance of my kids being taught by only one teacher throughout the school year? Or does it matter who teaches them, just as long as they are being taught correctly?

As a mother in general, my heart aches for the teachers having to leave their babies. As a mother to my school age kids, my heart aches for my own children who will have to deal with changes in their classroom.

I’d love to hear from other parents who have been in this situation. Please leave me comments and let me know what you think. Am I being overemotional about my kids having more than one teacher this school year? Am I being fair or unfair to the teachers and their maternity situations?