Sunday, February 22, 2009

Kindergarten


Kindergarten -- what exactly does that mean? The word kindergarten means "children's garden" in German. The very first kindergarten opened on June 28, 1840 by Friedrich Frobel in Germany. The first kindergarten in the US opened in 1856 by Margaret Meyer Schurz in Waterton, Wisconsin. Kindergarten was created to help young children make the transition from home to more formal schooling. Kids learn to communicate, play, and interact. For some, kindergarten helps them adjust to being apart from their parents. Kindergarten varies from country to country ...

CANADA -- there are 2 forms of kindergarten, junior and senior.
CHINA -- children begin kindergarten when they are 2 years old.
FRANCE -- not compulsory, but nearly 100% of children attend.
GERMANY -- kindergarten is not actually part of the school system.
HONG KONG -- children begin their education as early as 8 months.
MEXICO -- kindergarten goes for 3 years before elementary school.
UK -- kindergarten is called nursery schools or playgroups.

What do you remember about kindergarten? I'm 44, so kindergarten was a long time ago. I remember being dropped off my first day and feeling butterflies in my stomach. The only other thing I remember is making my handprint out of clay. I remember the room, how the teacher rolled the clay out and used a big coffee can to cut it into a circle. I also remember her pushing my hand down into the clay to get the imprint. I don't remember anything else. Oddly, I have one memory of preschool and that was having to lay down on the floor with a blanket for quiet time. We had to move mid-year and I never got my blanket back -- how sad.

Both of my girls went to kindergarten at a private school. It was a great school and we have many fond memories. By the time our boys came, we were homeschooling, so their kindergarten was different. They're good kids and are turning out just fine, so I'm not worried about that. It's just interesting to me how much you remember. Like I said, kindergarten was a long time ago for me and I really don't remember much about it. I'm wondering if my kids will remember more than me, especially the boys since we've homeschooled them and a lot of their memories have been documented in photos and saved in binders. I don't have any of my kindergarten work, just my handprint and my kindergarten picture.

Which brings me to the picture! Awhile back, there were some photo challenges to post things like senior pics, wedding pics and newspaper clippings. I thought it would be fun to have another -- kindergarten pictures! I challenge you to post your kindergarten picture on your blog. As you can see, I had no front teeth. And again, what was it with my mom and the plaid? Not only is this a plaid jumper, but it was a tweed plaid -- ugh.

So -- are you brave enough to post your kindergarten picture?

13 comments:

  1. For once I am happy to not have my own blog... so I sadly have no where to post my lovely kindergarten picture. (I think we went to the same hairdresser though!) lol

    And I have no memories of kindergarten at all.. or most of public school for that matter. I just can't remember being young! Oh well. (Heck sometimes I have trouble remembering yesterday!) lol

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  2. HA! I just saw your reply on Facebook and I know your scanner isn't broken. ;) LOL @ having no memories. I'm the same way, pretty much, but that's mostly because I was rarely there. I liked to stay home and watch cartoons a lot.

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  3. Look at you...you look so cute!
    I don't think I have a kindergarten photo...I don't remember much just myself crying...and crying...and crying every single morning...
    I am going to go thru my photos and if I find one I will post it.

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  4. What a cute photo, Rena!
    I'll have to scan my kindergarten photo at some point. I liked kindergarten, but I don't remember much of it.

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  5. I don't think I have a nursery school photo.
    What I do remember is singing the rainbow song...red and yellow and pink and green...and it's not even scientifically correct!
    I also remember making a little orange felt dog I called Princess - (I think the nursery teacher must have done most of the sewing though!)

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  6. I went to a Catholic kindergarten, so I remember the nun trying to force me to be a right hander and my mom going in and telling her to leave me a lone and let me be a lefty...

    Great pic...I will have to see if I can dig up a kindergarten pic of me...yikes! You and your challenges...grin...if only I could pass up a good challenge...sigh...

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  7. That is too cute! And I love the idea of a children's garden. I have lots of memories of kindergarten - don't know why, maybe because I had a wonderful teacher: Mrs. Chinn. I'll look for a kindergarten photo but I had enough trouble finding my senior one. :(

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  8. awww . . . how cute!

    I remember my classroom very vividly. I remember our reading table and reading the Dick and Jane books. I also remember once telling a teacher that "...you're not so bad for a teacher." thankfully she laughed.

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  9. Cute photo Rena. I don't remember much about kindergarten except falling down a big hill in the snow and really scratching up my knee, I still have a scar. Not sure if I could find a picture.

    Nancy

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  10. You look like an elf, Rena! Sweet. We did not have photos taken where/when I went to kindergarten.

    I have strong good memories because my sister and I were in such a unique situation being the only two white children in an all black school.

    The school I graduated from had junior and senior kindergarten classes. When I was in sixth grade they were in the room directly below ours. We could easily hear them banging on thir instruments during music!

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  11. I remember not wanting to go and begging my neighbor or my parents to stay (it was one or the other who would drop me off). It would breeze by so quickly, though, that I'd forget by the end of the day. I remember a bit of colouring, especially letters and numbers. A lot of my memories of kindergarten are dominated by the playground. I loved recess!

    Gale

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  12. Kindergarten picture? I have only a B&W group photo of 40-some kids, because this was the baby boom days. And I don't even have that. It's stuffed in my mother's house someplace.

    I cried the first day. Totally unlike the kind of kid I was. I had recently gotten lost in a department store, and was afraid I'd get lost in the school.

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  13. Oh Marcia -- I know how scary that is. I got lost in a Kmart once when I was little. I had to go up to an employee and they paged my mom. That's not fun when you're little.

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