More Preschool News
We’ve made a lot of progress this week. Here is how our week has gone on the way to preschool dropoff:
Day 1: “I want you to come to preschool with me…”
Day 2: “I don’t want to go to preschool…”
Day 3: “I want to go to preschool…See you later!”
Day 4: “Where’s Miss Tammy? I want to go to preschool!” (She was so excited today that she forgot to say goodbye when leaving the car.)
Part of this enthusiasm may be related to the snack table at school. Apparently Katherine is quite the regular at the table (twice on Tuesday morning), helping herself to apples, cheese and crackers provided by the school. I only hope she doesn’t clean them out of food. ๐
Good socialization is happening already. Yesterday she informed me that someone in school said “Stop it!” and slapped someone’s arm. I asked her whether this is something we do or not, and she said “No. Miss Tammy said we shouldn’t say this.” She also said to me “when you take something out, you have to put it back. Teacher said this at school.” The irony is that we’ve been trying to teach her this all summer!
Katherine decided today to fill her little plastic pitcher with water and pour it into her play glasses in her playroom. We had a fiesty discussion about how we don’t put real drinks or food on her play cups and plates. Upon visiting preschool today, it became very clear that she is trying to transfer many of her “real life” Montessori activities to home. They have a water station with a very nice pitcher and paper cups that the kids can use whenever they want. I’m going to have to figure out what activities should be transferable and how to do so without wreaking havoc at home.
Despite her usual loquatiousness, Katherine is pretty quiet about her preschool experience. She’ll answer direct questions like “Did you have a snack today” or “Did you work on a project?” But, when I asked her to tell me about her day she’ll tell me “I already told you about it…” or just not respond. We’ve probably learned more about her experience tonight at a parent meeting than over the last week. We got to see her project work, how she stores her slippers and hear about a couple older friends who have talked to their mom about Katherine.
Our teacher suggested we meet in another 3 weeks or so to discuss Katherine’s adjustment in the classroom. They also have a focus group type one-way mirror that parents can use to observe Katherine’s classroom. I think I’m going to try this out on Monday. More news then.
Allison’s Development
Allison’s sleep schedule is drifting a bit of course. She’s getting up now around 1AM and then 5AM – which is starting to get kind of tough. My focus this past few days is to get her more sleep during the day. I suspect that her nocturnal activity is related to lack of regular sleep during the day.
Allison loves to see what family members are doing. For instance, today my mom, Katherine, Allison and I were outside doing some gardening. Allison was doing her “ahhh ahhh” cranky sound until my mom turned her around so she could see what I was doing. The same protesting occurred during dinner, until my mom sat her on the dinner table and she could participate in the family dinner. She provided big smiles and she seemed very happy to be in the thick of things.