What'd You Do at School Today? The Evolution on Getting the Scoop

As your child moves through his or her educational career, your way of getting information about how the day went goes through some pretty big changes. While the biggest jump might be from preschool to kindergarten, high school is a whole new ball game, too. So whether your child is just entering nursery school or is in her senior year, you'll appreciate the evolution of how parents get the scoop on what exactly goes on during their child's day at school. Source: Flickr user sikeri

Preschool

Preschool

Every day the teacher hands you a note with everything from tears to food consumed to bowel movements. You are aware of what books she read, what friends she played with, and what songs she sang. Life is good! Source: Instagram user xoxoabs

Pre-K

Pre-K

Not only will the teacher fill you in on the fun little details, so will your chatty 4-year-old, as she proudly hands you her messy artwork each day. At my child's pre-K, the teachers even write a daily letter and post it on the bulletin board outside the class for parents to read. So if your tot's answer to "what did you do today?" is "nothing, Mom," then you can lure her in with more specific questions like, "I saw you had earthworms in the classroom. How was that?" Source: Instagram user omgitsnary

Elementary School: Kindergarten Through Second

Elementary School: Kindergarten Through Second

I hope you recycle, because you will be getting mountains of paperwork. From the behavior charts and the classroom requests to the homework and the PTA fliers, parents receive a lot of crumpled-up pieces of paper from the backpack (or placed neatly in a folder, if you're lucky). Some actually pertain to your tot's day — some do not. Your kid may even try to articulate an event that happened during the day, but usually it makes no sense, and you have to contact the teacher to figure out what the heck he was talking about anyway. Source: Instagram user danagaugersmith

Elementary School: Third Through Fifth

Elementary School: Third Through Fifth

Generally speaking, kiddos are jazzed to spill the beans on the latest bus or cafeteria gossip, but as for what they need to study or complete? Not so much. Thank goodness for RAZ Kids, those required student organizers, and, at the very least, report cards — or you'd be at a major loss here. Teachers can be good allies when fishing for information for these grades. "Honey, I've already emailed with your teacher, so think really hard, do you or do you not have a quiz to study for on Friday?" Source: Instagram user pammypd

Middle School: Sixth Through Eighth

Middle School: Sixth Through Eighth

Middle school starts your (and your child's) journey on communicating with his school via the information highway. You find out about your kid's quiz tomorrow because your mom-pal posted a picture of her son studying for it on Facebook. Detention slips that need to be signed may go missing, but luckily his teacher also texted you about it. And thank goodness for Edmodo, Quizlet, and all those awesome programs keeping parents in the loop. Oh, and if your child has actually carried over the organizer habit from his elementary school days, peeking into that will give you some good intel as well. Source: Instagram user therealyoungjames3

High School: Ninth Through Twelfth

High School: Ninth Through Twelfth

And then there comes the time where you just have to trust that your child will relay to you any information you need to know about her day. Sure, it will probably be in the form of a text, and yes, the only way you'll hear about tonight's football game is because she asks to go, but don't worry! You've both been prepping for this her entire educational career — you got this! Source: Instagram user emma_schaefer13