The kid thread: Planning, pregnancy & parenting

[Lizard Queen]

ODS's kindergarten teacher used text messages, which was really nice. 1st grade teacher did Twitter, but only for a few pictures. 2nd grade teacher used class dojo for behavior only. I think all teachers are required to do a weekly newsletter. It might now be required to be electronic, as they were emailed the last 2 years. The school and district also do mass emails. (They will do some texts, but use those more sparingly.) The school has a Google calendar on their website, and the district has a master calendar on their website. They have facebook pages too, but I don't think they do that much with notifications through those. The texts are my preference. I can miss emails, never check Facebook unless I can't find info elsewhere.

[tcu2003]

We’ve only been through kindergarten with one child so far, but we got weekly emails to all elementary parents from the principal with a newsletter, special event notices, etc. C’s Kindergarten teacher also sent weekly one page newsletters to the parents of the kids in the class. The school district uses the Seesaw Family app where they share pictures (of the kids, or of their schoolwork) - that was maybe once a week or so that we got updates that way. The school district had a Facebook page, but I don’t think our elementary school does...or if they do, it’s rarely updated.

[Wisconsin Beth]

Jul 15, 2018 16:39:46 GMT -5 Knee Deep in Water Chloe said:

Jul 15, 2018 15:28:47 GMT -5 geenamercile said:

The county I work at has a Facebook page, but it more for major updates, to be honest I don't check it very often as we normally get the updates in emails or a meeting at the same time/or before it is posted.  I think the school board will post things like the upcoming agenda beforehand too.  Most of the schools have a calendar on their web page for both my work and home district.  YDD school has a Facebook page on their own and have more daily post on it.   

The principals will send out a weekly email to the staff, but this is more for school-parent-communication. It's amazing to me that the district isn't using mass email through the SIS. I use it out of my classroom to the parents of the 125 kids I teach, but I was seriously the first one to ever do that when I was hired in this district three years ago. 

our school moved to a texting format. I think it's called remind? I love it because I'm failing badly with email lately.

[Wisconsin Beth]

The kids and I had a good weekend with my parents. It's was humid and no wind. The mosquitos were horrible. We used a full can of Deep Woods Off and are still full of bites.

Dh admitted last night that he enjoyed having the house to himself. Lol.

[chen35]

DH is taking C to his parents for two days this week. His brother and family are in town from PA. They only come every three years or so. I was supposed to be on a work trip, but that got cancelled last minute. I have mixed feelings. It will be nice to have the house to myself, lol, but I'll miss C.

[Deleted]

Jul 16, 2018 8:38:58 GMT -5 Wisconsin Beth said:

The kids and I had a good weekend with my parents. It's was humid and no wind. The mosquitos were horrible. We used a full can of Deep Woods Off and are still full of bites.

Dh admitted last night that he enjoyed having the house to himself. Lol.

Carrot came home from camp covered in bites and he reacts crazy to them.  About a third of his bottle of Deep Woods off was empty.  This weekend sucked weatherwise. 

[Deleted]

Jul 16, 2018 8:55:09 GMT -5 chen35 said:

DH is taking C to his parents for two days this week. His brother and family are in town from PA. They only come every three years or so. I was supposed to be on a work trip, but that got cancelled last minute. I have mixed feelings. It will be nice to have the house to myself, lol, but I'll miss C.

Embrace it!  I really enjoy my breaks from the kids. 

[andi9899]

Jul 16, 2018 9:15:35 GMT -5 minnesotapaintlady said:

Jul 16, 2018 8:55:09 GMT -5 chen35 said:

DH is taking C to his parents for two days this week. His brother and family are in town from PA. They only come every three years or so. I was supposed to be on a work trip, but that got cancelled last minute. I have mixed feelings. It will be nice to have the house to myself, lol, but I'll miss C.

Embrace it!  I really enjoy my breaks from the kids. 

This. You need some kid free time. It keeps you sane.

[Wisconsin Beth]

Jul 16, 2018 9:15:35 GMT -5 minnesotapaintlady said:

Jul 16, 2018 8:55:09 GMT -5 chen35 said:

DH is taking C to his parents for two days this week. His brother and family are in town from PA. They only come every three years or so. I was supposed to be on a work trip, but that got cancelled last minute. I have mixed feelings. It will be nice to have the house to myself, lol, but I'll miss C.

Embrace it!  I really enjoy my breaks from the kids. 

I know, I enjoy mine too. I'm hoping to talk dh into taking the kids without me since he's realized how much he enjoyed this weekend.

[geenamercile]

Kid free time is awesome.  It is one of those things that I put a high priority on for DH and I.  Even if it does feel like I am forcing it on DH at times.  

[Chocolate Lover]

Jul 15, 2018 15:25:04 GMT -5 Knee Deep in Water Chloe said:

Does your school district run a FB page or other type of page that has a calendar of events? Does that help you? What are its flaws and what would make it better? 


I'm setting up a FB page for the school district where I work. I'm entering an "event" for each day off of school for this coming year. I'm wondering if it's worth my time to do this. 

Yes. Everything and almost anything.   They are woefully behind on anything that isn't football. Anything that isn't football is almost impossible to find anything on, calendars, facebook pages, whatever they have they don't update or man. Depending on how bad your district has been and for how long, it may indeed be a waste of your time. 

I currently can't find anywhere (district or school pages) the registration schedule where you show up in person to get schedules and pay fees. School starts in a month, so this is probably happening in a couple of weeks. I had to call the school to ask. <<head/desk>>

[Knee Deep in Water Chloe]

Jul 16, 2018 13:22:03 GMT -5 Chocolate Lover said:

Jul 15, 2018 15:25:04 GMT -5 Knee Deep in Water Chloe said:

Does your school district run a FB page or other type of page that has a calendar of events? Does that help you? What are its flaws and what would make it better? 


I'm setting up a FB page for the school district where I work. I'm entering an "event" for each day off of school for this coming year. I'm wondering if it's worth my time to do this. 

Yes. Everything and almost anything.   They are woefully behind on anything that isn't football. Anything that isn't football is almost impossible to find anything on, calendars, facebook pages, whatever they have they don't update or man. Depending on how bad your district has been and for how long, it may indeed be a waste of your time. 

I currently can't find anywhere (district or school pages) the registration schedule where you show up in person to get schedules and pay fees. School starts in a month, so this is probably happening in a couple of weeks. I had to call the school to ask. <<head/desk>>

And as a parent, this is how I feel about our district. It just shouldn't be that hard to have one master calendar on a website somewhere. 

[Chocolate Lover]

Jul 16, 2018 13:46:11 GMT -5 Knee Deep in Water Chloe said:

Jul 16, 2018 13:22:03 GMT -5 Chocolate Lover said:

Yes. Everything and almost anything.   They are woefully behind on anything that isn't football. Anything that isn't football is almost impossible to find anything on, calendars, facebook pages, whatever they have they don't update or man. Depending on how bad your district has been and for how long, it may indeed be a waste of your time. 

I currently can't find anywhere (district or school pages) the registration schedule where you show up in person to get schedules and pay fees. School starts in a month, so this is probably happening in a couple of weeks. I had to call the school to ask. <<head/desk>>

And as a parent, this is how I feel about our district. It just shouldn't be that hard to have one master calendar on a website somewhere. 

We have way more schools in our district than yours, but I agree, it's not that dang hard to share is it?! After all, someone, somewhere already is so why not just share??

[geenamercile]

See I wouldn't want to sift through a district master calendar when looking for information about my daughters.  I like that each school has a calendar and everything is on it, from club meetings, picture day, when field trip stuff is due for different grades ect...  My home district only had 5 elementary and 2 middle and 2 middle high schools.  I couldn't imagine one master for the district I work at 17 elementary, 8 middle and 5 high schools.  

[geenamercile]

Now I could see something like a google calendar where all the schools have their own calendar and you could pick what schools you want to see.

[Deleted]

The grade/middle school emails a lot and sends out a weekly newsletter.

DS's high school uses just about every communication form available.  They have a Facebook page, a personal login at their web page with calendars.  A weekly newsletter, email reminders, and my favorite, an app for my phone that I can check most things.  It's pretty hard to miss a date with them. 

[Sam_2.0]

Hey! We had a fun night. He wasnt an ass. And I tried oysters for the first time - soooooo gross.

[Knee Deep in Water Chloe]

Jul 16, 2018 21:24:16 GMT -5 Sam_2.0 said:

Hey! We had a fun night. He wasnt an ass. And I tried oysters for the first time - soooooo gross.

Is it weird how excited I am that your food was worse than your husband? 

[Knee Deep in Water Chloe]

Jul 16, 2018 14:02:46 GMT -5 geenamercile said:

See I wouldn't want to sift through a district master calendar when looking for information about my daughters.  I like that each school has a calendar and everything is on it, from club meetings, picture day, when field trip stuff is due for different grades ect...  My home district only had 5 elementary and 2 middle and 2 middle high schools.  I couldn't imagine one master for the district I work at 17 elementary, 8 middle and 5 high schools.  

And in that scenario, it makes sense to have separate calendars. We only have the primary, elementary, and secondary traditional schools and then one alternative school. In our case, only one master calendar is necessary. 

Considering how much time it's taken me to enter each school day off though, I can understand why this type of communication slips through the cracks. 

[andi9899]

Jul 16, 2018 21:24:16 GMT -5 Sam_2.0 said:

Hey! We had a fun night. He wasnt an ass. And I tried oysters for the first time - soooooo gross.

Glad you had a good night.

However, I totally disagree on oysters. Oysters are life!

[chen35]

Glad you had a fun night, Sam!

DH left this morning with C. I have an accidental job interview at 4:30, then the rest of the night to myself. I'm going to try to actually go jogging, then read a new book. We'll see how well that goes.

[swamp]

Jul 16, 2018 21:24:16 GMT -5 Sam_2.0 said:

Hey! We had a fun night. He wasnt an ass. And I tried oysters for the first time - soooooo gross.

You looked happy in that picture.  

I hope he's recognizing the error of his ways. 

[swamp]

I have a party at my house tonight for a service club I'm in.

I need to crack the whip when i get home and get the kids cleaning and picking up.  

I'm so glad i have slave labor. 

[tcu2003]

Jul 17, 2018 10:53:05 GMT -5 chen35 said:

Glad you had a fun night, Sam!

DH left this morning with C. I have an accidental job interview at 4:30, then the rest of the night to myself. I'm going to try to actually go jogging, then read a new book. We'll see how well that goes.

What is an accidental job interview?

[chen35]

I was supposed to be meeting with this start up to discuss the industry and bounce ideas off each other. Then when they sent the calendar invite they called it an interview. So...I guess I'm interviewing? I'm not really looking, but am genuinely curious as to what they are about, so we'll see.

[TheHaitian]

Been working over time trying to get to meet new people in the neighborhood because I realized my daughter needs to play with other kids her age or close... she is very shy/sheltered and not sure how to interact with other kids.

She is more of the seat back and watch other kids play but you can see she wants to jump in and play too but not sure of herself.

Yep I am making friends for my daughter ... damn, shit just got real!

————-

So I went on “next door” and surprise: there are quite a few families around us with kids her age, like literally 2 houses - 5 houses down. We have a play date scheduled with a lady that bought the house that I wanted to buy at first but they put an offer first. Her daughter is also 18 months .

Next week scheduling another play dates with a neighbor whose daughter is 16 months old.

It is crazy; once I put myself out there; I discovered we had a lot of people around us with kids similar age. I think because of our daughter we really need to make an effort and not be the “keep to ourselves” neighbors anymore and really need to be more out there.

So For the sake of my daughter... let’s see what gives! Also meeting more this Thursday at the town library (we usually go to another library a few blocks away).

[raeoflyte]

We lucked out that there are a lot of kids on our block and with kids who are a little bit older, most of our play dates happen just by the kids playing outside.  It draws other kids out.  We have a swing in our front tree and it's a huge attraction.  I highly recommend it if you're trying to get to know the neighbor kids, but aren't terribly extroverted.  

[swamp]

My kids came through for me.  They did so much work and no complaints.  

DD even made chocolate covered strawberries in the afternoon to serve at the party.  

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

We've had three days without Gwen home so apparently Abby felt the need to step up in the c*ck blocking department.   I swear they must have had a secret meeting ahead of time there is no way they didn't plan this.  
.

[raeoflyte]

Jul 18, 2018 8:37:55 GMT -5 swamp said:

My kids came through for me.  They did so much work and no complaints.  

DD even made chocolate covered strawberries in the afternoon to serve at the party.  

That is so sweet!