Oh can I join you? I will be attending my fifth preschool (yes, PRESCHOOL) graduation tomorrow. All were for my kids. How many kids do I have? Two. Because they all graduate, every year. From preschool.

LOL - My daughter just had her first graduation - Kindergarten - it was cute and the first she's had so she was super excited and very worried about missing hers when I spent time getting the tangles out of her hair. Her school doesn't do pre-school graduation and no other day care/school she's been at except one did but only for the pre-K4, but she left before she could be part of that. After this one I'm so glad she won't have another until 6th grade. One her friends moms said this was her daughter's third graduation and she was guessing her kid would be very disappointed she wasn't going to have a graduation next year.

I personally don't see the need for graduation until high school, but I'm guessing others think it is cute and the schools do it for the parents. I'm glad she got to do it once as a little kid, but thankful it isn't every year.

My kids got an invite to a weekend graduation party for a classmate. They're 5th graders. I didn't know kids graduate from 5th grade.

Yeah, I think it is over the top. Put me in the curmudgeon bin too. I can almost see a cute little kindergarten grad ceremony. But let's wait til high school for the next one.

I am a bad parent! When DS2's nursery school teacher sent home a charming letter reminding us that during color week all the kids were to wear clothing in the color of the day, I kindly told her that DS2 would be wearing the school uniform as per usual----it wasnt mandatory for nursery school (actually he was the only four year old in a uniform and it made him stand out like an orphan but it was EASY and his brother and sister wore them, so he did too). She was disappointed but did finally come to understand that older moms with that third child were not interested enough to rush out and purchase single use orange shorts for color week. And at his "graduation" he wore Power Rangers pajamas.....his choice, in black.

Oh yes, I have also been to my older child's kindergarten graduation. And next week I go to his fifth grade graduation. I love my children dearly, but I really don't think any of these are accomplishments. Certainly not worth a ceremony. Oh well, dd will love hers--she's a performer and will love singing the songs and being made a fuss over.

And you are better than me kswl2, I was completely disinterested in all those spirit activities for my oldest! Fortunately he never much wanted to participate.

I've never understood kindergarten graduations. Luckily, our school system for our three only had EOY 6th grade ceremonies, then HS graduation.

I noticed Shutterfly now offers yearbooks. When our first grandson was born, I started making him photobooks. He started going to a half day program when he was almost 2yo a few days a week. He made such cute artwork, I started scanning those that were small enough and taking photos of the rest. I also include photos taken at school. I make him a larger photobook each year so DD2 doesn't have to save "everything." He's almost 4yo now and still loves looking at his books.

Generally, I despise such things, including those spirit activities that you mention kswl. It gets to be too much. Unfortunately, my youngest is into it and is bothered when we cannot attend every function the school has. I did cry at my 11 year old's 5th grade EOY ceremony. He cleaned house on academic awards and was voted by the 5th grade class as their Road Runner of the Year for the boys (tied with another boy). His name will be on a plaque in the school for all of posterity. It was absolutely an accomplishment to get to this point as he is autistic and there was a time we were not even sure if he was even going to talk. There are still many issues ahead of him but he has at least made it to middle school.

I am also not fond of the trend of offering yearbooks to elementary school. The books you talk about Allison sound cute, but a $40 book for elementary school where the only kids you are really aware of are in your class and you are not likely to remember many of them later, that is just too much.

The lady commented it was a yearbook, not graduation. I think they're both unnecessary, but for the yearbook, I'm sure the teacher(s) took the time to put them together to be nice and figured they'd be appreciated. Looks like that mother was thrilled. It's one more thing the parent has to go through and decide whether to keep or toss.

Tishtosh, How wonderful for your son. Congratulations are due.

Mtn-My feelings exactly. They even had to bring in 100 of the same item for the 100th day of school for heaven's sake. There is only 4 years between our three kids, so you can imagine how many years of that nonsense I had. They also had preschool graduations, kindergarten graduations, 5th grade graduations, 8th grade graduations, high school graduations, and college graduations, and now two of them are in graduate school! It never ends, LOL.

Oh yeah, we had that. Posters of 100. 100 matchbox cars IIRC. 100 butterflies. For the third one, I forget.... isn't that always the way it is? I do recall some other kid's project. Their Dad worked at the UN and they did a poster with "hello" in 100 languages.

We are the same, 3.5yrs between the three. 54 weeks between the last two!

Graduate school and college I will gladly attend! All of the others, they had darned well better do, sans accolades.

I just survived my son's 8th grade graduation two nights ago after multiple festivities (dance, pool party, class trip, etc). My kids go to a private K-8 school where the majority of the class has been there since kindergarten. The graduation is nice b/c for h.s., they scatter to a variety of high schools so it is nice to commemorate their nine years together. I don't remember so much hoopla when my dd had her 8th grade graduation two years ago, but my son's class has a unique chemistry. I'll be doing this again in two years, but that year, we will also have my dd graduating h.s. (And two years later, same thing as my youngest will finish 8th grade the year our second oldest graduates h.s.!). But preschool graduations we did not have.

On a related note, my parents have four grandchildren having "graduations" all in a week period! First my 8th grader Tuesday, then the next day they drove 6 hrs to my sister's for my nephew's 8th grade graduation (also K-8 school)' then tomorrow his sister's preschool graduation then they rush home for my other niece's college graduation!

The comments about the 100th day made me laugh out loud. My poor kid! I thought about 1) what we had 100 of, 2) what I didn't care about if it got lost, and 3) what could my kid carry to school without weighing down his backpack. 100 navy beans! Ha. I hope he's not scarred for life.

Eh, it builds character, ajm!

Oh this just makes me so happy that I'm done with this nonsense and I never experienced anything as extreme as the '100th day' - what a waste of time.

We moved to this town because of the public schools. We wanted to raise our kids in a community with a smaller system ( 3 elementary schools, 1 middle and 1 high school) yet large enough to offer AP classes, competitive sports and the usual assortment of clubs and town activities. My 3 graduated with relatively small classes - 185, 201 and 230. Our town also has a Catholic grade school and a Quaker school that's K-12.

I think the private schools seem to incorporate more of these 'special days' into the school calendar. Our nursery schools didn't have graduation, just small class parties. Kindergarten merely had the last day of class picnic along with the rest of the elementary school. Grade schools had holiday parties and there was an 8th grade dance held in the middle school gym. The administration sent notices that limos were strongly discouraged. Of course there were some parents who sent the kids in a limo, one hired a horse and carriage, there was one Rolls but the family actually owned that. There was an assortment of classic cars - DH drove our kids in our 1964 1/2 Mustang convertible and a neighbor had a bath tub Porsche.

Maybe it's the Quaker influence or the fact that my children are now in their 30's but things seemed to be more low-key when they were in school - or perhaps I've blocked out some of those days. I do know that at one time parties became a little too frequent and the administration had to step in. I wonder if parents are still allowed to send in treats for grade school birthdays? I'll have to ask my neighbors.

Loving all the 'happy' experiences/memories of school days (daze??). My kids also went to private school and I also recall many graduations; they graduated from kindergarten, middle school then high school. I have to confess I always enjoyed those, especially my son's since there were rather a few moments when I wasn't quite sure we'd get there...

Lots of those special theme days as well. My least favorite were probably the sports bandwagon times-when the Miami Marlins were on their way to winning the whatever the national baseball title is and when the Heat were in their Lebron James years, our school would have team days and the kids had to wear the appropriate t-shirts. Gah, given that we seem to be the only family in America with no interest or passion for organized/team/professional sports that was such a PITA. Recall racing to Target to buy those (#*&$ shirts to be worn literally one time.

Anyway, my curmudgeon report was mostly because this "school" child is in fact IMO a daycare child. Which is fine, I've got no bias about daycare and from what I can see this seems to be a great facility. But for mom to try to spin it as school is ridiculous. A 3-month old (which is how old little James was when he matriculated :) is not at school and a one year old hasn't completed his first year at school either. So there. And get off my lawn!

Get off my lawn--lol. Fwiw, my kids go to public school. Well, dd goes to a private preschool. But ds had an IEP and went to a public preschool. And his kindergarten and upcoming fifth grade graduation and all those special days (inducing 100 days)--all at a public school. I think it's a matter of times changing more than public vs private.

Is the every thing (can't really say accomplishment) gets a ceremony/celebration an offshoot to the everybody gets a trophy? If everything is a commendable milestone, doesn't that lessen the noteworthiness of each event? Ho-hum, another occasion for pomp and circumstance and all I did was show up for x number of required days.

1 yr old yearbook pics-- too funny!

I have a couple of pics from my kindergarten graduation where we wore school made mortar boards! cute for the pics I guess!! :)

what used to drive me crazy was the 'awarding' trophies for every season of every sport the kids played... my kids were very active, so we had an unbelievable # of trophies- some engraved with my kids' names, so i couldn't even donate them..... i also wonder if it diluted their excitement for the medals they got when a couple of them received them later in their lives for real athletic accomplishments...?

Hhireno, yes ... Part of the misguided self-esteem movement.

I found public school to be far worse than private in re the nonsense, but it may be unfair because my kids switched to private after grade 4, so that age difference could be it, too.

My dog wore a mortarboard to his obedience school graduation. He got a diploma, too.

All these extra activities must drive teachers crazy-I know it did me, as a parent. One thing my son did not participate in was Pajama Day. I just have never thought it was good for school atmosphere to be at school all day in pajamas. Seeing teachers in PJ's just looks unprofessional, IMO.

Well there was the day my DD showed up for pajama day, only it wasn't pajama day. That was great.

How funny, Mtn!

Oh doesn't that sound like a classic bad dream? like the one where you're in school and discover that you're not wearing shoes. Hope your DD wasn't upset.

Oh I hate all those little special days with different things. Often there weren't enough notice for me to even do anything and my kid is the kind that would be devastated because she missed something. Thankfully there weren't too many of them in Kindergarten, but I was the bad mom that forced my kid to wear her uniform on free dress day a couple of times because I forgot and rushing in the morning that is what I pulled out. She got to school and was upset. After that I added it to my calendar so we could pull it out the day before and be ready.

I think 'graduations' other than high school and college are ridiculous. We don't leave children many special events (coming of age sorts of things) to look forward to any more.

As far as special days in elementary school, we don't have many in our district and as a teacher, I must admit that I do love pajama day. :-).

Gotta say though, the comment "If only they spent this much time and effort on science and math" was pretty snarky, mtn and not what I would expect from you.

I'm laughing at these stories. I don't have kids but I know that my friends who work at schools hate the special days. My jaw dropped open when I heard that there are pajama days. Seriously? I just don't get it.

My daughter teaches kindergarten in a large public school. She and her students love pajama day. It's held late in the week before winter break when the kids are ready for a change from the normal class work. students and teachers wear PJs, they have hot chocolate for a snack and watch the movie Polar Express.

I know when I was a student years ago, anytime we had the chance to not wear the school uniform was exciting and fun.

ML

My problem with pajama day is at our house, the things we use for pajamas are fine for going to bed in, not so great to wear to school. One of my kids loves to participate in such things and then I have mommy guilt over the pajamas that have been passed down from his 2 older brothers and almost go out and buy new pajamas, which is ridiculous, I know.

Some of our extra functions are a math night or science night. There was also a coding night. I work in the evenings and so all these big to-do's lead to more angst for me because "Mom, if I don't go, I cannot get a sticker for spirit chart." Of course, this leads to more mommy guilt. I am also of the opinion that the kids have spent all day there, let's go home and relax and not drive back there, again.

Cyn,

Sorry, let me say it in a much less snarky way. I do understand the logic that all of the special days and parties can be educational and can engage students. However, I find them to be excessive and I resented what I perceived to be an enormous waste of time. This is from the perspective of two parents who were fixtures volunteering in class as well as running many of these parties ( as class parents for at least one kid usually 2, every single year). This was also a commonly held view.

Then there are things like, the day before school vacation, the last week of school. It was also common for very little teaching to occur on those days, too. And this was is in 2 different, very highly regarded school systems.

I think most parents, if asked, would like it all toned down.

PS I think it was first grade. I don't think she cared a bit!

I think some of the 'special' days could be an awesome opportunity for a kid to be creative, and have fun while learning about dr seuss's genius, dinosaurs, flowers, immigration or whatever, but when parents step in to help make it really special by buying a crazy hat or creating a clever and 'authentic' outfit or whatever, it creates more stress and eliminates at least some of the creativity for the kid...

pajama day is supposed to be just relaxed and fun- whether they wear brand new pjs or hand me downs! no reason to look 'professional' on pj day! (it's elementary school, not a bank!)

Too funny, busybee

I didnt mind my children's school 100th day. The walked 100 steps, did 100 jumping jacks, 100 toe touches, etc...

I do loathe many of the special days, my children usually opted to say they forgot. When they got to HS they loved spirit week, in which each day there is a different theme, not only in clothing but there is usually a skit, or debate, or song sort of performance competition. It is between the classes. By tradition the seniors always win, and the interest is in who will come in second place. My personal favorite is 'look like a teacher day' it has to be a teacher in the school and the contest is to see who does the best job, the costumed students and the replicated teachers all go up on the stage and the students vote for the best duo.

My least favorite EVER was grandparents day in one of our schools, G 2 - 4. We have no grandparents anywhere nearby, and even though the school said , in small print, or any older special friend, when your kids have no grandparents available it is torture. I complained repeatedly for years and then just kept my kids home that day to spare the tears.

Well busybee, you will be happy to know then that my youngest has plans on how to handle some of these things. He wants to find a rainbow wig at Halloween to save for crazy hair day and if that is not available (I am not sure I have seen them in recent years) his idea is buy a bunch of the different colored hair sprays when they go on clearance after Halloween. Yes, I am a bit impressed, as he is only 8 and the other part of me is a tad overwhelmed.