And no, it’s not my mind. :) I found a mother’s day out. I have been looking, and looking, and looking some more. I have seen such a broad range that it amazes me. Some were nice facilities but had unfriendly workers or cost way too much. Some were very friendly but the facility was lacking…one didn’t even have a playground. Uh, hello, Mally’s goal in life is to go to the playground every. single. day. So no playground? Forget it. So, here’s the place. http://www.stpauls-lakeview.org/academics/early.asp
I toured today. I love it. Love love love it. They are doing a semi-Reggio approach which you may not have ever heard of in your whole life. Most people haven’t. Reggio is a town in Italy. The basic idea is that the materials are very creative and ever-changing. The activity set out has a purpose, but the child can do with it what they please. For example, they had made pumpkin mobiles from tissue paper squares placed on contact paper pumpkins and strung with orange ribbon. No set way to do it necessarily, and they could decide something totally different. Tons of art is involved in Reggio. And they are supposed to record what they are doing but drawing, dictating, or photographing the activities. There was a picture for each day this past week which showed what main activity they did that day. This is sent to parents so they have something to discuss with their kid. Ask Mallory what she did on any day of the week, ever, even if it isn’t true, and she will say “went playground!” So, the pictures are great and there is a little caption to go with it.
The room. was. awesome. It was huge. It was clean. There was a special reading nook, a train table, a huge kitchen play area, dress up area, a fish tank, a large art area with available supplies, a block area with floor blocks and table blocks, a math manipulative area, and more. There were lots of pictures of things they had done, as well as lots of actual artwork everywhere. Reggio is big into variety of materials. Clay, sand, tissue paper, construction paper, play dough, water (they were mixing colored water with droppers today), sculpture materials, etc.
The playground was awesome. And huge. And had a wooden area for trikes, a giant garden, an outdoor classroom, greenhouse, treehouse in the works, field with soccer goals, and a Waldorfian wooden climbing area. (Waldorf is another approach to learning and it’s very “green.”)
I saw some of the other rooms as well. The cafeteria area is wall-to-wall artwork from kids. One entire wall is collaged self-portraits. I was in love. It’s awesome. Did I mention that already? I had considered a Montessori school because of many reasons. This isn’t one, but that’s ok. Montessori does multi-age groups and the one I visited yesterday said Mally would be in with the preschool kids instead of toddlers because of her abilities. But honestly, I am not so sure that is what I want. KWIM? I don’t want to hold her down, but I don’t want to push too hard. How do parents find a middle ground? I am repeatedly told by strangers and at all of the schools that we have looked at (and there have been dozens) that Mally is articulate, confident, intelligent, smart, cute (of course, that’s unrelated but I had to throw that in there), high, old (code for smarter than kids her age), etc. And it scares me. I know it sounds ridiculous and there are so many parents out there just begging to have their kids go through a day without struggling, so it’s a bit trite. Seriously though. I have taught a lot of grades. I have seen those smart kids. There are “smart kids” and there are over the top kids. I don’t want the over the top kid. They rarely have social skills and they have so much trouble making friends. Even when they are super sweet and can carry on a conversation with any adult with no problem. They always have a sad look in their eyes because they know they are different…or maybe that look was boredom. ;) Anyhow, I still remember Crystal Bollinger from first grade. She did the last page of the math book, the assessment page, in like, 2 minutes, but her parents wouldn’t skip any grades because they said they didn’t care if she learned a thing, but she needed to make some friends.
Not to mention that, as her mother, I don’t see it the way other people do. She knows 20+letters, all of them if it’s a particular set we have, but only half her lower case letters. She identifies numbers to 9, counts to 11teen (which comes after 12 in case you were wondering), counts to 5 in Spanish, and is trying hard to write her name. She can write the M and an l. So, yes, I had first graders that couldn’t do half of that stuff, but it’s just so “her” that it doesn’t seem unusual to me at all. It’s as normal for her as singing Twinkle, Twinkle and going right into the “ABCD” song or hugging her babies and pushing them in the stroller. If it becomes more clear that she is “gifted” (and that’s the first time I have used that word) then we’ll see what to do about it later. For now, I am going to sign her up for mother’s day out where she can go and glue glitter on pumkins and make ghosts from socks, where she can climb the stairs and go down the slide a hundred times. Where she can build with blocks and read a book to Curious George. And, at last, I will have a little break too.
On to another topic. Potty training. It’s yucky. We are still in the phase where I can put her on it and she will usually go, but the only time she asks to go is if she is in her bed! She does usually tell us when she needs to go poopy. I guess it’s more obvious to her. I think if I did real panties and stayed home for a week, we could be trained. Now, how do people deal with the little girls going to the potty in public restrooms? It’s so gross. I can’t remember the last time I sat on one, so putting her on one makes me want to puke. Ick.
New topic. Again. Uh, I signed up for the Arbor Day Run 5k. I will am going to come in last. Every day I have an excuse for not exercising. I am only running about half a mile at a time about twice a week. Uh, not going to cut it. Race is in 2 weeks. I don’t expect to win or anything, but not being last would be a good goal. On the upside, I quit coke and am down to my pre-baby, pre-miscarriage, pre-Clomid taking, weight. It’s nice. My Joe’s jeans fit. I should say they fit like they are supposed to, because technichally I think I wore these a few times last year. They were way tighter. Yikes! What was I thinking? People ask how I lost this weight, but I tell them you don’t want to know and it surely wasn’t exercise!
Can I end by saying that I love having my internet access back? It rocks!
