Bentley's Back to School Night

We had Back to School Night at Bentley, Haley's new school, last
night. WOW and DAMN! She's a lucky girl. What an amazing school.

All the teachers are someone you would really enjoy sharing a meal
with, they are enthusiastic, interesting, well spoken, and they all
love teaching. They love what they do and they love the kids. We heard
from the art teacher, the music teacher, the PE teacher, the Spanish
teacher and the Mandarin teacher. The French teacher was out sick. K-2
gets a trimester of each language and in third grade they choose one.
The music and PE teacher occasionally combine efforts and do movement
to music.

After that presentation, we crammed our adult asses into kindergarten
chairs in the classroom and learned all about the kindergarten class.
Each child had drawn "why I am special," and there was a sheet there
for us to draw "Why you are special" for our kids to find the next
morning. We saw the poetry book, the math book, the reading book, the
handwriting book. We learned about the specialists that have lectured
the teachers over the summer and why they think homework is not as
important - in fact, possibly damaging - as they used to. We signed up
for the many many field trips, parties, fund raisers and events. There
will be a Yahoo group and a Shutterfly account, and a cd of photos at
the end of the year. Near each kids birthday, they are the student of
the week, which includes presentations of baby photos, inviting in
someone important in their life, and so on.

To top it all of, there is free childcare (well, included as part of
the exorbitant tuition) until 6 pm every night. Haley LOVES it - and
why not! She can draw and play in the child care room, run around the
playground, or read in the library, along with all the other lower and
middle school kids. She's already made a ton of friends of various
ages. Yesterday when I picked her up at 4:15 (classes end at 2:40), I
said, "wow, Haley, you must love this!" "No, mom, I don't love it when
I cannot find Luxe and Lachelle!" Ah, yes, so many kids, so much to
do, life is so hard, little one!

I've signed on as one of 4 class parents, which means I'm the back up
if any volunteer flakes, and I get to moderate the Yahoo list. It's a
lot of time but I'm happy to find someway to be involved in all of
this.

Lucky kid, I wish I had a school like this!

Alexa is sleeping and the fambly is due at 5pm. Must shower, cook, set
up, pick up Haley and get the cake. I'm so glad to know she is happy
where she is and I can pick her up when I am good and ready.