The One Thing I Want Parents to Know: A Kindergarten Teacher’s Reflection

Guest Post by Amanda of The Kindergarten Chick

In honor of back to school time and sending my three year old to preschool, I wanted to blog about what I have just discovered upon reflection this week. This is my tenth year teaching Kindergarten and I still felt that I did not have the answer to an age-old question for Kindergarten teachers. The question is, “What one thing would you like parents to work on most before sending their child to you?”

The answer dawned on me as I was photographing my three year old on her first day of preschool. You have to understand that this day was on Thursday of the craziest week of the year for us. I do not adjust my girl’s summer bedtime a week before school because it is tough and usually backfires. I just let them get tired and crabby and let their sleep schedule even out. My three year old sure was CRABBY by Tuesday. I was very nervous about how cranky she would be Thursday on her first day of preschool. The girl is a peanut, but she can tantrum with the best of them in a very high pitch. I was getting very nervous; she is a teacher’s kid after all. She already had expectations to live up to and I was sure she was going to fail with flying colors!

Thursday rolled around and this kid bounced out of bed with a smile on her face using pleasant sounding conversation at 7 AM! (unheard of in this house). We tend to speak as little as possible for fear of setting her off. She prepared for preschool quickly and happily and very willingly let us take her picture. She had a great first day and I am a very proud parent!!

So what is the answer? Attitude! School is held high on a pedestal at my house. My mother in-law is teacher. I am a teacher. Education is very important and so is respecting your teachers. She has grown up helping me in my classroom and now it was her turn to be a big girl in her very own school with her very own teacher. Then I started thinking about my best, most favorite students and I saw the connection. They come from a variety of backgrounds; rich, poor, two parent homes, one parent homes, blended families, all religions, all races, but the one common denominator was that school was a good place to be and they wanted to learn. The parents respected the teachers and I respected those parents and that, my friends, is a win win combination.

Amanda is the mother to two daughters, a kindergarten teacher, and a blogger at the Kindergarten Chick.

6 Comments

  1. I could not agree more. Attitude is the best thing to teach. I think that parents respecting the teacher and vise versa is also essential. I used to be a teacher and could not believe how so many parents mind sets have changed. When I grew up, my parents would always take the teacher’s side. Now days it seems that parents will automatically take their child’s side, no matter what, not even attempting to get an adult’s perspective (which is much different than a 3-4 year olds perspective. By the way, your daughters are so precious and beautiful! I love the ladybug dress!

  2. I used to teach Kindergarten, and the one thing I always begged parents to teach their children was shoe-tying. I can handle students coming in with any level of knowledge and skill, but when a whole class of little ones come in with lace-up shoes and no idea how to tie them, it can get overwhelming and time-consuming. I realize this is a work in progress, but a little help from parents would be nice.

    1. That’s a great one! I used to have first graders who still couldn’t tie their shoes and it really held things up, especially when getting ready to leave the classroom!

  3. Honestly, I think ATTITUDE is a thing parents need to teach their child LONG before getting ready for Kindergarten!!! That is the one thing that makes me crazy as a parent is when my children have an attitude with me or any other PERSON (adult or anyone)!!! I am working with my 12month old, almost 3 year old and 4.5 year old on this very thing right now just as I have been for the past 4 years.

  4. Thanks ladies for reading my post!! I think I am the odd one out on the shoe tying thing. I didn’t teach my own child to tie her shoes until 2nd grade, however I did not buy her lace shoes either. That gave me a great post idea!!

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