C R Y D E R P O I N T 8 AUGUST Back to School Daze The Good, the Bad and the Snuggly for Cryder Kids Time to find the alarm clock. School starts again this month – early mornings, rush-around afternoons, coats, gloves and hats, homework and tests, tests, tests. But it’s not all bad. The kids have are friends to reconnect with, clothes to fuss over, gossip (and no one gossips like little ones) to be swapped. And did we mention that the kids are gone for eight hours a day once school kicks back in. No longer underfoot 24/7. Peace – for part of the day, at least. “She’s excited about going back,” says Maria Gavares, who’s lived at Cryder Point for TK years, about her 8-year-old, Alexandra. “She likes school.” “Books, bags, schools supplies,” answers Randi Mangiapane – mother of three – when asked what she’s doing to prepare for back-to-school days. She’s been shopping all summer for it, in fact. “I’m a teacher too, so you have to know when to go, which certain days to take advantage of the sales,” says Randi, who has lived at Cryder Point with her husband for 13 years. These days, summer is no longer all play for kids either. “My son especially had a lot of summer homework,” says Randi. Steven, age 12 , is in his last year at Bell Academy, a charter junior high school inside, PS 169 in Bay Terrace “But they all have to keep up with their work,” she says, meaning the younger ones – Kara, age 9, and Jason, age 5 – who are students at PS 193, the Alfred J. Kennedy School on 11th Avenue. “I’m lucky – Alexandra reads a lot,” says Maria. “Lots of Judy Moody books this summer, anything about dogs and animals. “Then online, there have been math drills, stuff about U.S. history. She likes to be at top of her class” at PS 130, says Alexandra’s proud mom. “It’s her personality.” Other moms confess they are anxious this year about the full-out start of the new CORE curriculum in the city school system. Lots of bad publicity and a natural confusion over a new system of testing has some parents on edge. But don’t worry, says Randi, who has taught neatly every grade since becoming a primary school teacher 17 years ago (she teaches at PS 49 in Middle Village, by the way). “There have to be standards to teach to,” she says. “It’s important. As long as you have good teachers, great administrative people and planning, no reaosn they can’t meet the standards. “We’re not doing anything different, just doing it in a different way,” she explains. “Parents shouldn’t worry.” 8 CRYDER POINT COURIER | AUGUST 2014 | WWW.QUEENSCOURIER.COM
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