[AnnetteL]

Just curious how your kids are doing in their new school?

[Coldjensens]

All schools seem to appreciate volunteer parents. Some depend on them.

[bluebird39]

Just an FYI. I used to volunteer regularly at my kids' school, and now, because of no child left behind, regular adult volunteers must pay to be fingerprinted and have a criminal background check before they can volunteer for more than parties or field trips. It's not cheap either... 45-90 dollars.

In Oregon, where we lived before, class sizes were insane... My kindergarten teacher had 45 students in her classroom. Can you say "chaos". They heavily depended on parent volunteers. At one time I was left in charge of all 90 kindergarteners lined up after recess all by myself!

On the other extreme, the school here leaves it up to the teachers. With class sizes around 20 students, many teachers prefer NOT to have volunteers, while others seem to use them to help out the more at-risk students and give them some extra attention and help in addition to the teachers' help.

I think each school is different. It depends on their resources too.

[diamondgirl45]

Originally Posted by AnnetteL

Just curious how your kids are doing in their new school?

My kids are doing extremely well , thank you for asking. They have adjusted quickly to the big changes from our last school (one quarter of the size of their new one) and LOVE it here.
In fact I am totally blown away by the amount of work they do in a day. Sometimes I think the homework load is extreme (for first and second graders) and heaven knows alot of trees must die judging by all the paper they bring home. But I really believe they are getting an excellent education here and I couldn't be happier!