This week has been a first time experience for us with the school bus, public school and the whole nine yards. Our kid started going to kindergarten and we have been going to the bus stop to help him get on the bus and then follow the bus to see him go to his class room properly. Our kid along with a lot of other kids goes to another private school after he finishes the public school. My wife also went to the school to see him get on to the after school bus properly the first day and saw him go into that class room safely. We have been going to the school every day to make him feel comfortable and get him to establish a pattern.
And I also heard this story yesterday from a colleague of mine who is from Chicago. It seems one of the kids fell asleep when he got on the bus in the morning and the bus driver dropped all the kids at the school except for this poor child and parked the bus in a lot. 2 hours later, someone in the parking lot found this kid waving from inside. Safely, the de-hydrated kid was taken to the hospital and everything is fine now.
All these years, we have been sending him to a daycare/preschool where we dropped him in one building and picked him from the same spot and involved lesser number of kids compared to a publick school. Granted me and my wife are being over cautious and maybe we would get used to it very soon. But, there has to be a better way to feel safe for every one and there by here is an idea that I was thinking about this morning. It would be really nice if we were to receive a text message everytime a kid checks in and out of the class room. It could be done by using something like a badge similar to the one we use when we walk into the office building to open the door. If we were to have a badge reader that would send a text msg automatically when he walks into the class room in the morning and then another one when he walks out of the class room at the end of the day. Wouldn`t it be nice ?
I thought I would ask the experts to see how you guys felt about this ? And feel free to rip it apart ...
cheers
Prashant



