My daughter’s teacher spends more time with her than I do.
That’s life.
At least that’s what I tell myself.
My 6-year-old gets up at 7 a.m. Monday-Friday. We’re out the door no later than 8 a.m. in order to get to school on time. I pick her up from school by 3:30 p.m. and we’re together until she goes to bed at 7:30 p.m. That gives us a grand total of five waking hours together. Compare that to the 7.5 hours she spends in school with her teacher and classmates.
Thank goodness I love my daughter’s first grade teacher. It’s much easier to let go when you trust the person that your child spends the entire day with.
I am blessed to work from home, so daycare was never an issue for us. In addition, last year, my daughter attended half-day kindergarten because I didn’t think it was conducive for my 5-year-old to spend eight hours a day in school. Instead, I supplemented her education with homeschool curriculum and enrolled her in a variety of extra-curricular activities. As a result, my 6-year-old is well-adjusted, socially adept and is currently completing curriculum designed for a third grader, in large part because her school keeps accelerated learners with their peers for social reasons. Personally, I am not married to that philosophy, but that’s fodder for a different blog.
The fact is that I trust my daughter’s teacher to meet her needs both academically and emotionally when I am not physically present.
So far, so good.
Granted, we are only about a month into the new school year, but my daughter has only stellar things to say about her teacher (the same could not be said for her kindergarten teacher) and from what I have seen and heard about her, she seems to be a top-notch educator with an outstanding reputation.
Of course, my first impression could turn out to be completely off the mark, but here’s hoping that my daughter’s first year of all-day school is one that she remembers fondly for years to come… thanks to a teacher that I have complete trust in.
Do you trust your child’s teacher?