To think that teacher should make sure 4 yr old has a drink?

[aliharris]

OK, DS just started school, had 7 half days and then started full time this week.
All the children have to take a water bottle in, and as DS won't drink anything else, this isn't anything unusual for him. However, he always needs to be reminded to have a drink as he won't stop playing etc to have one unless he is absolutely desperate.
I quickly realised that he wasn't drinking very much and put a note in his home to school book (the messaging system). TA wrote a note that she would encourage him to drink plenty.
Today I picked him up to find he hadn't had anything to drink from his bottle at all. He said he had had one drink from the water fountain, but nothing else, not even at lunch time. I waited to speak to the teacher and she just said, "Well I remind them to have a drink, I can't check individually".
Now I realise he has to learn to drink more, but I am so, so cross that he has gone a whole day at school without a proper drink - his bottle is transparent so it's not like you can't see.
AIBU? If it continues what can I do?

Ah, yet another thread which proves that many parents have absolutely NO idea what goes on inside a classroom.

Actually I do, as a teacher myself, have some idea about what goes on inside a classroom. From personal experience, it makes a difference if the students are hydrated and it's not hard to do a class reminder a couple of minutes before break or just when they come in. If they choose not to, fair dos, but neither the OP nor anyone else is suggesting force, merely that reminding them is helpful because children forget....

I've had an issue this week with children not taking home their reading books and logs. Yesterday, at home-time, I made each child stand at their place, holding the book in the air in one hand, the log in the air in the other. When I could see both, they had to put them in their bag and go home. I stood at the door and asked each child, one at a time, if they had them with them. "Yes, Mrs Clam," they all trilled, dutifully.

10 minutes later, I found one reading book on the floor of the cloakroom, another log on the wall outside and one still in a book box on a table.

My point: it is well-nigh impossible to get all 30 children to follow instructions, even when you try to nail them down as I did yesterday. No doubt I will get at least one complaint from a parent next week about not having reminded their child to take their book home.

Makehay: no one is denying the benefits of drinking water on this thread. It's about what is reasonable to expect a frantically busy teacher to do about it above and beyond regular reminders.

At the end of the end of the day teachers are there to teach - yup and that includes teaching healthy living habits, like drinking regularly, and also teaching kids how to learn. We all learn better if we drink more water.

Teachers make space in their day to teach lots of things. We teach people how to say 'please' and 'thank you'. We teach people how to deal with conflict. We teach people to be tolerant and accept each other . . . . It's a really simple, and really rewarding thing, to teach people that it's good to drink water.

Schools want attendance increased and absences from schools reduced (so do most parents.) Teaching kids to drink more water is a great way to improve health and therefore attendance rates. And teaching people things does not just mean telling them it - particularly when they are 4 or 5 - it means creating time and space where this can happen - as well as working with parents who will be encouraging from home.

Maekhay: "merely that reminding them is helpful because children forget...."

THE TEACHER HAS BEEN REMINDING THEM!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This whole "drink more water" thing is bollocks:

www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=eight-glasses-water-per-day

www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=eight-glasses-water-per-day

At ds's school the kids used to have their water bottles on their tables so they could drink when they wanted to.

The 8 glasses a day myth has since been debunked.

Goggle Butterbeliever and The Guardian

Aside from that expecting a 4 year old to rem to drink above and beyond learning the layout of a new classroom/school,routes,expectations,changing,peers(let alone learning to read and write) etc is a tad over ambitious imvho.

Routines

Ah yes clam I have had that issue with homework, reading records, letters all sorts! And once after bugging a child to hand in his homework repeatedly, I made him get it out of book bag, saw him clutching it and went to go and deal with another home time issue. Did it end up in the homework tray? Of course not!!!

are children dropping from dehydration these days all the teachers and T As can do is say take a drink they can not force a 4 yr old to do it and there is 30 in a class the little boy took a drink from the fountain I am assuming a drink at lunchtime it is not a teachers responsibility to bottle feed 4 yr olds water, if your son was thirsty he will drink his water , when they first brought in the water bottles for school my dds were in primary I had many full water bottles home they were not dried up prunes by 3pm , and water sitting getting warm in a bottle is pretty vile tbh

Maekhay: "merely that reminding them is helpful because children forget...."

THE TEACHER HAS BEEN REMINDING THEM!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's fine then. No need to shout (and it's MakeHay). Perhaps give me time to respond to the first time you said it rather than shouting at me two posts later. is that how you teach? And actually there are plenty of people on the thread questioning why they need to drink during school anyway - the focus being on dehydration rather than the issue of performance. It's worth repeating why it's important to drink regularly - and how it impacts learning and behaviour, as many seem to skirt over this issue.

This whole "drink more water" thing is bollocks:

www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=eight-glasses-water-per-day

Maybe drinking 8 glasses is overkill but actually drinking more water is not bollocks, actually - especially when we are talking about children who drink virtually nothing during the day. No-one's suggesting increasing from 7 to 8 glasses....

The OP stated that the teacher reminded them to drink in the first post.

makehay what do you think the teacher should do then ?

And nowhere did I suggest the teacher had not been reminding them. If you read my first post (no reason for you to, I admit) I said this was acceptable for the teacher.

I always forget it's not worth contributing on AIBU.

Remind the students regularly, perhaps have a regular drink time before breaks.

but it seems the teachers do remind them and perhaps they do just before playtime but what if 18 4 year olds don't do they stand over them till they drink ?

MakeHay (must make sure I get it correct!) I think that capital letters were used because both in the op and repeatedly through the thread it has been said that the teacher had said she would remind the children, and then you came on and said 'its not hard to give a class reminder' and it was a leetle bit frustrating

And from the way the op was written I got the impression that she was t satifsfied with the teacher 'just saying' that she can remind all the children but can't remind individuals.

wasn't