I have been wanting to post updates all these weeks and in my mind I had done so but now I realize I was just dreaming. I kind of have missed out three whole months of updates and that's too bad but I do have an excuse: I have no time!
Life with two children two years apart is quite different and taking into account that I have also worked since the littlest was 12 days, I feel writing a weekly update is just too much. Well, of course I was just working around 1,5 to 4,5 hours a week but it makes no difference, I spend the little time I have making projects or invitations for my toddler, or mobiles for my baby...
No time and here I am rambling on instead of getting to the point.
We have been intensely looking for a preschool for M, which has also taken much of my time both on pondering pros and cons and attending open house visits. The range of options is wide, although we have pretty much the idea of what we feel suits M best. Up to now we have visited several preschools and schools. The first one was a public/state conventional school in the middle of the woods. The lush surroundings and the fact that it is within walking distance from our house made the visit compelling. We had some expectations since many of the families who bring their children there, and some of the teachers, are alternative and there is a timid attempt at hands-on projects. I was positively surprised to see the variety of materials three-year-old children had access to and nonetheless a full class of 25 three-year-olds sitting and working on a collage of the snow at the same time made me feel a bit giddy. They talk endlessly about "the adaptation period". I feel two half mornings to adapt to the change of being home with a parent to being in a class with 24 other children and an adult cannot be possibly enough for M -- let alone me.
Next, we went to visit two little Montessori inspired preschools that use hands-on approaches and let one of the parents accompany the child for as long as the s/he needs it. Choosing one from these two had been our first idea but when we started comparing, we couldn't make our minds up. The one we had visited first, as soon as June last year, was the option I leant toward. The teachers seemed very respectful and their philosophy was on a par with mine in the majority of aspects. I also liked the families we had seen on their open house. The dad, though, was unimpressed by their Montessori material, which he thought looked too new, and suspected children had no free access to it. He favored the option I had dismissed because the owner of the land the preschool was in, and mother of two of the children who attended, had given me the impression she acted a bit as if she were the queen of the place. I have to confess I am rather bad at being in places where someone is clearly the owner. The teacher in that school, however, had spent long periods with Rebecca and Mauricio Wild and was acquainted with the Pestalozzi.
Yesterday we visited a public/state progressive school which is a 30 minute ride from our home. The facilities, materials, outdoor and indoor invitations to play and work were really impressive. They gave a two-hour talk, which neither the husband nor I could listen to from beginning to end because we had gone with both kids. We heard a bit each, though, and what was more important, visited the facility at M's rhythm. She was fascinated by a kind of sand box modeling steppe landscape and spent more than 20 minutes arranging the wonderful Schleich animals and trees and manipulating the pebbles and rocks. That school would really be an option weren't it -in my opinion- too far away, and located in the suburbs of a socially depressed town. I am sorry I might sound snob but the car ride with two kids that aren't keen on cars is what frightens me most, actually.
Next Saturday we are going to visit a Waldorf preschool and a brand new private progressive school. Then, another public school in the nearby and another Waldorf preschool the next weekend and I think that will be it. We will have to choose or decide to stay home for another year or until it is time A goes to preschool. M is always asking to see children so I don't know if that could be an option.
I wanted to write on how A nearly turns from tommy to back, on how M has come up with I-spy games all by herself, on how tender it is to hold a three-month old baby and how fun it is to be around our toddler but it is already way past midnight and I can't afford sleeping less than I already do. How about sharing some pics instead?
As a tribute to the birds, we have done a collage and I am happy to share it. I like the result and the process was a non directed activity, age appropriate for a 2 year-old-toddler, as well as interesting.
I I don't have any pictures of the invitation to paint, but as you can guess from the finished collage, there were some paper clippings -deliberately cut in the shape of a tree, ovals for the birds' bodies, triangles for the beaks, little rectangles for the legs, and so on. There were sponges and some little plates with finger paint.
