At your child's school, what is/was the birthday ritual?

My dad always sent me to school with a big batch of homemade brownies on my birthday. I don’t remember any special rituals like your son’s, but everyone loved me that day because we got to stop class 15 minutes early to sing and eat brownies… ;)

@sdeutsch – It was much the same for me as a child, except my birthday is in summer, so I didn’t get a chance to share any goodies. In 4th grade, our teacher set aside a half hour one afternoon near the end of the spring term to have a bit of cake and punch for all of us with summer birthdays.

@daloon – That’s very sweet! I hope your son has enjoyed the rest of his special day! :D

Wow, at my school (I don’t have a child) we just had our name called over the intercom and either a teacher or an office aid would bring us a pencil that said “happy birthday” and a piece of candy. I feel deprived. xD

I had heard that many schools didn’t allow for birthday teats anymore because of allergies and such so I am delighted to hear of one that still does.

Ha. When I was in Elementary school, I never did because my birthday was in July. But, one year, a teacher gave us a “fake” birthday so that we could celebrate it.

I brought in:
Cake
Chocolate
Cookies
Ice Cream

But somehow I am still not popular :S.

I miss celebrating my brithday in school! In elementary school, my mom used to buy me those munchkins or make cupcakes for me to bring to school for my class. In 5th grade my mom brought in stuff to make ‘dirt cups’, those were the bessssst! <3

I heard some schools don’t allow sugar at all, therefore, the child must bring in a “health” snack such as carrots or fruit. On one hand this is a good lesson for kids, one another hand it seems kind of punitive. Just my opinion.

@jca
That is terrible!
But I can see what they are getting at.

I don’t remember any mentions of birthdays while in school.

My sons birthdays are in the summer. When they were in grade school, anyone who had a summer birthday would be given a certain day just before the end of the school year to celebrate. I think they called it their “un-birthday”, I can’t remember for sure. They asked us to bring in a treat and drink for the class, but that was about it.

we didn’t celebrate birthdays in school – however there was a rule about invitations to home birthday parties.

If you brought one for one student, you had to invite the entire class. Otherwise it was not permitted. Invitations were requested to be mailed privately and not done through school.

My son is too old now, but my daughter has the option of bringing in a treat or sending money so the whole class can get an ice cream from the cafeteria. I never went in to the classroom except to deliver the goodies. I didn’t want to hover.
I still hold the record for coolest birthday treat (worms in dirt) according to my daughter and her friends. She said most parents send cupcakes or brownies.

The teacher did ask me if there were any nuts in the brownies because one person in the class had a peanut allergy. They also mentioned peanut oil, which gave me pause, because, after many, many years without, I finally bought some peanut oil to make fried tofu with peanut sauce, a dish my children love. I made it with canola oil, but that made the whole house smell like fish (all those omega 3s).

Speaking of which, once I made waffles that way and they, too smelled like fish, but every other time I made waffles with canola oil they have been fine. Weird.

So, knowing there is peanut oil in the house, I then had to think, would my wife make brownies with peanut oil? I remembered seeing melted butter and chocolate, so I figured there wasn’t any peanut oil. That would just be too weird. Still, I was just a teeny bit anxious that since I didn’t call my wife to check, some poor kid would nearly asphyxiate because of an allergic action, due to my ignorance.

As far as I know, all is well. My son didn’t mention anything when we picked him up.

I have t had any stuff like that.yust the cake

I still celebrate birthdays in my high school classroom. We write it on the board and we sing during their class.

I found out it’s a NYS law, sweets in the school one day per month only. usually, I was told, they do it the last Friday of the month – to celebrate birthdays.

@jca: Is that really a law? Is there a source for this?

@jcs I live in NY. Either you are misinformed, or my kids school regularly disregards the law.
Maybe that’s just one particular schools rule.

i visited a school the other day and that’s what one of the staff told me. i’d say google it to check it. the school was where i got the info. she said it’s New York State law.

Maybe she was just trying to save herself some grief.

who the school staff? why would there be grief for her? i am not an enforcer.

One elementary school I went to had a policy of announcing students birthdays. I still remember this with resentment. I was extremely unpopular and tried very hard to not be noticed. I felt that the school was violating my privacy by publicizing my birthday. I didn’t want the other children to know that it was my birthday, just wanting to be quietly ignored.. Typical uncaring institutional behavior; it probably never occurred to those idiots that they should have asked permission before revealing personal private information..