Typically I am in the classroom and in high school, but this week I was at an elementary school teaching a rhythms/gym class.
It appears MANY parents are highly unaware of the activities kids have at school on a regular basis and how to dress them appropriately.
Over the course of the first two days there were fifty kids at a time for certain time intervals. This means I got to work with every single child in the entire school and see how they played and what their parents gave them to wear.
Here's an example of activities and what is seen during those activities:
Activity: Mountain Climbers: Child stands, leans down with hands on floor, and slides feet up and down as if climbing up a mountain.
What happens: Kid's heads are practically down to the floor, so their shirts come up. WAY up. PLEASE have your children wear body hugging undershirts and appropriate other clothing! Kids that young are often blissfully unaware of their bodies and even if your child hasn't started hitting that wonderful age of development, some other kids are and they ARE looking at yours!
Activity: Cherry Pickers. Children stand up, feet apart, then reach down to between their feet on the count of one, on the count of two move their hands back more, count of three reach even further back, then bring hands back up and clap. Repeated quickly (121-1, 123-2, 123-3, my apologies to those of you flashing back to basic training, hehe)
What happens: You've got girls in skirts with no shorts underneath. The kids are standing in line, so unless your child is in pants, you better hope your kid isn't still wearing underoos style stuff or they're gonna get teased for a LONG time! Same goes with sitting on the floor with feet apart and leaning over doing toe touches...except this time it's anyone facing the child.
People, skirts are NOT more modest than pants in a gym, on a playground, in a music or rhythms class, and sometimes just not even in the classroom where they might do more than sit at a desk.
If a skirt is a must for modesty's sake, you either have to accept that shorts are okay or put pants underneath the skirt. Even a skirt that goes almost ankle length can quickly become immodest in school.
If you put your child in jeans and a skirt, that does NOT mean they're dressing more modest than the kids in skirts! Those shirts ride up and I've yet to see a kid whose parent put an undershirt on their child. There's been other types of clothing, but when it comes to modesty, you want something tight underneath like an undershirt or leotard. And as much as I hate seeing kids have to think about it so young, explain the concept of modesty to them! You might trust their teacher, you might trust others, but trust me when I say that even at the elementary age, some of the other kids out there are NOT trustworthy and will take every opportunity they can to sneak a peek and a whole lot of parents who won't bat an eyelash if their son gets caught because they have the attitude that "boys will be boys" and some actually seem PROUD of their kids for starting to do this stuff so young.
Ew
Provide appropriate clothes for your kids. Please!
It appears MANY parents are highly unaware of the activities kids have at school on a regular basis and how to dress them appropriately.
Over the course of the first two days there were fifty kids at a time for certain time intervals. This means I got to work with every single child in the entire school and see how they played and what their parents gave them to wear.
Here's an example of activities and what is seen during those activities:
Activity: Mountain Climbers: Child stands, leans down with hands on floor, and slides feet up and down as if climbing up a mountain.
What happens: Kid's heads are practically down to the floor, so their shirts come up. WAY up. PLEASE have your children wear body hugging undershirts and appropriate other clothing! Kids that young are often blissfully unaware of their bodies and even if your child hasn't started hitting that wonderful age of development, some other kids are and they ARE looking at yours!
Activity: Cherry Pickers. Children stand up, feet apart, then reach down to between their feet on the count of one, on the count of two move their hands back more, count of three reach even further back, then bring hands back up and clap. Repeated quickly (121-1, 123-2, 123-3, my apologies to those of you flashing back to basic training, hehe)
What happens: You've got girls in skirts with no shorts underneath. The kids are standing in line, so unless your child is in pants, you better hope your kid isn't still wearing underoos style stuff or they're gonna get teased for a LONG time! Same goes with sitting on the floor with feet apart and leaning over doing toe touches...except this time it's anyone facing the child.
People, skirts are NOT more modest than pants in a gym, on a playground, in a music or rhythms class, and sometimes just not even in the classroom where they might do more than sit at a desk.
If a skirt is a must for modesty's sake, you either have to accept that shorts are okay or put pants underneath the skirt. Even a skirt that goes almost ankle length can quickly become immodest in school.
If you put your child in jeans and a skirt, that does NOT mean they're dressing more modest than the kids in skirts! Those shirts ride up and I've yet to see a kid whose parent put an undershirt on their child. There's been other types of clothing, but when it comes to modesty, you want something tight underneath like an undershirt or leotard. And as much as I hate seeing kids have to think about it so young, explain the concept of modesty to them! You might trust their teacher, you might trust others, but trust me when I say that even at the elementary age, some of the other kids out there are NOT trustworthy and will take every opportunity they can to sneak a peek and a whole lot of parents who won't bat an eyelash if their son gets caught because they have the attitude that "boys will be boys" and some actually seem PROUD of their kids for starting to do this stuff so young.
Ew
Provide appropriate clothes for your kids. Please!
