The toddler room at school sent out an email last night announcing a three day experiment of Silent Drop-off. They asked that, for the rest of the week, when dropping of our children parents not speak. They suggested using gestures, sign language, and (when absolutely necessary) whispers.
It was framed as a pedagogical tool to "allow the voices of the children to be heard". But I think they are just trying to tell us parents we are loud and obnoxious and hang around chatting too long each morning. And I'm not going to contradict that notion.
Anyway, we did as told this morning. We prepared both kids for this new system and they both did amazingly well. Tai spoke not a single word and in fact held a lengthy conversation with one of the teachers using sign language. Quynh started off whispering, "be quiet" and washed her hands in silence. With nothing to talk about, we were in and out of there in about 4 minutes. I hugged Quynh (already engaged in some activity at a table) and signed "I love you." She whispered it back to me before turning her attention back to what she was doing.
And that was it. I think it worked well. The kids all seemed happy and the parents didn't linger too long. But I wonder when the novelty will wear off.....and whether this system will continue past these next couple days?
PS - First blog post from the iPad. please forgive any typos.
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2 comments:
seriously??? post a new blog already!! - kg
That sounds like an interesting idea! I may need to borrow that one! :)
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