Christmas Countdown: Montessori Winter Program

Today was the Winter Program at Peeper's school, which is put on by the Toddler and Children's House classes. So, of course, it was adorable.

I had planned for Peeper to wear her Pretty Fancy Christmas Dress, but she told me that she didn't want to, because "it's too hard to get on and off," which she later confirmed meant, "It's too hard to go pee-pee in."

She's been having enough trouble with that, as it is, so I agreed to let her wear something else. Besides, she told me, "It's not a Christmas program, it's a snow program." So, she wore her snow shirt.

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
www.onetruemedia.com

Back to Real Life

Peeper went back to school today, after a week off for our trip to Texas, and she was not happy about it at all. I thought I'd never get her out of bed, or out of the house. Evidently, I am a meanie, and she doesn't like school anymore.

That's a shame.

Special Friend Night

This evening was "Special Friend Night" for the little ones at Peeper's school. That means that each kid was allowed to bring one (but only one) "special friend" - an adult, parent or otherwise - to visit the classroom and observe them demonstrative several "works" or activities.

Peeper chose me, and I got such a kick out of watching her do her thing.

She mostly wanted to show me the "water works" but I eventually got her to demonstrate some "dry works" as well.

It was pretty cool seeing her get out the materials, lay them out, do the activity, and put everything away. (It would be nice if she could do that at home!) It was even cooler when she talked through the process and explained to me what she was doing.

On the other hand, I could definitely see places where, "Bless her heart," she's just not quite there on things. For example, she had to do quite a bit of table drying after her "water works" and she really struggled to hang the wet towels up on the drying rack. Of course, it would've been easier if she'd not tried to put it on the highest rung that she could possibly reach (on tippy-toes) every time.

The last thing she demonstrated was some coloring. Of course, the picture itself was more or less scribbles. I was impressed (and a bit scared) when she showed me how to sharpen the colored pencil with a small hand-held sharpener (she had actually told us about that the other day, so I wasn't surprised or too freaked out) but less impressed when she turned the sharpener the wrong way, then took the pencil out and said, "See, how it's sharp!"

Peek-a-Roo

This morning, Shrike and I went to a training at Peeper's school for parents interested in substitute teaching there. Mostly it was an overview of "how things are done" at the toddler and "Children's House" (Peeper's class) levels.

It was very interesting, and several of us had questions along the lines of, "Okay, but how does that work at my house?" I asked if they have any workshops on how to implement this sort of thing at home, and the trainer said that they do, and she'll look into scheduling one.

Cool. Go me.

After the training, of course, we went and spied on Peeper in class for a while. At first, we couldn't find her, but then she appeared from behind some shelves.

She wandered over to the bells and tapped on them for a while. She was not doing any of the "work" described on that link, just tapping them.

Then she chose a tray and took it over to a table. Best as I could tell, it was for sorting big and small items. She put the word "big" beside the big bowl, and put a small bowl on the other side of the tray, then picked up a clothes pin, a small bell and a small ball.

She clipped the clothes pin onto the "handle" of the bell, and held it that way, while sticking the ball (just the right size) into the bell.

Yep, that's our girl. Even at Montessori, she is just making up her own shit.

Graffiti Artist

Once again, the MOMS Club left back-to-school messages in sidewalk chalk at several area schools. Last year, we did all nineteen schools of the district where most of us live, and this year, we did those, plus three in another district where we have some kids, plus K (AK's mom) and I did the Montessori Academy.

Peeper went out with me Friday evening and Sunday afternoon to work on the public schools, but we waited until this evening for Montessori, so it would be fresh tomorrow morning for the first full day of classes with all the students.

Peeper got into the act, adding the details of my Smiley Face Guy.

I had the circle colored in and she asked to add the face. I told her where to put the eyes and mouth, and then she got kind of carried away.

He now also has a nose, cheeks, ears, hair, chin, skin, body, legs, and I'm really not quite sure what else.

This is how I looked when we finished.

When I was taking photos of the chalk, Peeper decided to do a little photo shoot of her own. Here she is with the chalk outside the door of the Children's House wing, where she is dropped off and picked up.

And she wanted to take a few by the playground, too.

Day Two

Peeper had another 75-minute "phase-in day" at school this morning. We were a little confused about whether to take her in like we did yesterday, or drop her off at the side door like we will in the future, so there was a little extra wait time at the drop off, which gave her a chance to start getting nervous, but by the time we were at the front of the line and it was her turn to get out, she did okay.

Here she is waiting to go in. That's her book of photos of her classroom in her hands.

When we picked her up, she once again told us that "it was awesome," so yay!

First Day of School!

Peeper went to her first "phase in" day at her new Montessori school today. It was only an hour and a quarter, but we're calling it officially the First Day. With photos, of course.

She did really well, just expressed a bit of hesitance. While doing her hair, she said, "I don't really think I want to go to school," and "Why can't I learn things at home?" and as we got out of the car, she again brought up, "Why can't I learn things at home? I like reading and learning things." We assured her that she will still read and learn things at home, and she was pretty okay with that.

When it was time to leave for school, I told her, "Okay, time for pictures, and then to the car!" I couldn't find her, and it turned out she'd gone to her bedroom and sat down with Mr. Panda. Since tomorrow is the 27th, I suggested making this her official panda picture, but she was having none of that, and said she wants to take pictures with him again tomorrow. We'll see.

Heading out the door.

On the front porch.

Here's a better view of her sign. At the bottom, it says "When I grow up, I want to be a baker." That's the first time she's said that. Maybe she was watching a video about bakers when I interrupted her to ask.

Of course, I can thank Pinterest for the idea of having her write her name on the sign and include what she wants to be when she grows up.

Pay no attention to the awful garage doors.

Hopping in the car.

All buckled up.

In front of the school.

In front of the school.

In front of the school.

All the kids (just the new 3/4/5 year olds) and parents waited in the lobby for the teachers to come out and get them. When this photo was taken, the teachers were going around finding their kids and we were waiting for Peeper's teacher to spot her.

She found her!

The Head of School asked us to give them about fifteen minutes to get the kids into the rooms, and then we were welcome to go spy on them through in the two-way mirror.

Peeper seemed to be doing great. Today seemed to be about starting to learn the basics of How Montessori Works. They practiced getting out mats, unrolling and rolling, and putting them away, as well as walking around the room and not stepping on mats.

They were introduced to the pink tower and the brown stairs, and Peeper was the one that the teacher used to demonstrate the pink tower. That's what's going on in the photo below. The skeleton-under-a-dome is blocking the view of the tower.

After that, she worked on the pink tower independently while the other little girl did the brown stairs and the boys did transferring work. Then they traded and she did some transferring. She was in a part of the room that we couldn't see at that point, but she told us that she'd poured beads from one jar to another. She also said that they went all over the floor. Oops.

When we lost sight of her, we went back out and chatted with other parents for a while, then drove around to pick her up, the way we'll do it on regular days.

When she got in the car, I asked, "So, how was it?" and she said, "It was awesome!"

After school (at 10:15 am) we went out to brunch, with our MOMS Club friend K and her daughter AK, who is a Kindergartener in a different classroom. She declared it, "Schoolioawesome!"

Peeper thought her chocolate chip pancakes were pretty awesome, too.

Montessori New Parent Orientation

This evening was the new parent orientation meeting at Peeper's new Montessori school. After the meeting, I poked around in her classroom and took a bunch of photos to put in an album for her, so she can get an idea of what to expect.

What she can expect is awesome!