Getting ready for school

Fi will start school next September, she will be 5 and 3 months. I want to start a series about getting ready for school and life in school.

I feel I need to preface all of this, so my disposition can be better understood.

 I come from a long line of teachers, in fact I am an ex-teacher too, so I tend to leave good teachers alone and respect them a lot  more than your average non-teachers.

I would also characterize my involvement with the school as being a typical working mum of 3, very non-helicopter.

My 2 older children take the bus to and from school, I would see the teachers on the parent teacher conferences and during social events. If there is a need to communicate, and I am quite pro-active, I would send in a note or call. That perhaps happened about 10 times in the last 4 years. There has never been an indecent that couldn't be resolved this way. And we had bullying, learning support required, hearing issues, etc.

Of course we have been extremely lucky,my children go to a great, child-centred school and have had amazing teachers.

I am also an extremely private person and I don't consider it my life's mission to raise dwarfism awareness. If someone asks, which happens rarely in Ireland, I will respond based on the level of relationship, my mood etc. And I have a HUGE and I mean HUGE problem with the whole notion of labeling and using the terms dwarf, LP, etc about my child. I tend to say short stature due to a medical condition. - I realize that many people feel differently and dwarf pride and awareness raising are very important for others. I get it. And I respect how people feel about it and admire people who do it. It's just not me.

Having said all of this, I am aware that as Fi grows the difference between her and her peers is more and more obvious and I also know that not talking about things never makes them better or go away.

There have also been 2 incidents recently which made me re-evaluate my view point.

In the next part of this series, I will write about the 2 incidents and then will dive into the practical preparation for school.