Schools

It took a lot of conversations and a full morning of running around in 15 degree temps to observe different classes in different buildings, but Mike and I are very proud to have finally nailed down Jake and Abby's schooling for next year. We're putting them both in a Montessori school in town, one that will accomodate Jake in a lower elementary class (grade 1 in a class that mixes grades 1-3). Our big new decision was to not put Abby in the toddler class, but put her directly into the pre-school children's house class, for kids 2 1/2 through 6. She'll be 2 years and 9 months when she enters school in the fall and she's, well, no pussyfooting around it, a girl. She pretty much meets NOW every criteria for readiness that they gave to us. The kicker was that she's talking and counting to 10 and reciting colors and shapes and there was very little talking going on in the toddler room. Just a lot of nonverbal pointing as the mostly very young kids worked with very simple works. She'll need that larger classroom full of sophisticated materials and kids to interact with, we're sure. She'll just need to get her potty training in gear over the summer. Or more accurately, I will!

Anyway, we had to plunk down a large deposit and our hopes for entering the lottery for public schools in town are pretty much dashed by the timing of the payments due at this school. So, we're off to work to earn enough money so our kids can go to the very best school we could find for us in the area. The deciding factor, interestingly enough, was not the school or the price, but meeting the teachers and knowing who the kids would each be seeing and working with every day. We had such immediate intuitive reactions, positive and negative, to different teachers.

Jake will be in a classroom with two very experienced, low-key guides, including one who is a specialist in reading, which he needs. His current teachers also believe he will benefit from the Montessori environment at least for a few more years, as he develops confidence to do things as others are doing them. His learning style is based on observation right now, and Montessori classrooms accommodate that much better than a normal classroom would.

Abby will be in a classroom with 2 guides who have worked together for years, and manage a class that is always full of productive energy. After observing 4 different children's house teachers at Jake's current school I can see what a special class this one is. The kids in both classes looked completely engaged, completely at ease, and happy. Conflicts that came up were handled ably by the guides and kids working together. Two boys in Jake's future class even came up to us where we were sitting quietly in their room observing and offered to get us tea, very politely with no hint of self-consciouness. In his class they will cook their own lunch together once a week, plant edibles in the school garden, go to separate spaces for art and music and ecology lessons, and spend a lot of time outdoors. It is a lovely campus on top of a hill overlooking the Blue Ridge mountains, and is about 25 minutes from us.

I guess the truth also is that the whole school reminds me of the school I went to for 3-6 grades. Open campus, art in a barn, music in an old mansion. Same kind of feel here. It felt like coming home.

Oh, and I forgot to mention part of the school's mission: to measure their success by the extent to which graduates contribute positively to the world. Does that sound like me or what?

I hope they both thrive there!