She seems to be liking preschool. Her teacher is a very nice man, and I do so love that she has a male teacher for preschool. He reads to them, sings with them, does art with them, takes them outside. It always looks like she's having a great time when I peek into the classroom. Some of her comments have been funny, though. Like this self-portrait that she drew. She was excited enough to insist on taking it down off the classroom wall and taking it home. But then when I asked her about it she said "it's just something Mr. S. MADE me do". And then she told me he had read them Amelia Bedelia, and I asked if she liked it. "No, that's the most boring part of class". I was surprised - she always loves it when I read to her either at home or in a class at church. But she says I "do it a lot better than Mr. S".
She told her brother today that Mr. S has a "magic ball" that if you hold it when you are mad it will make you not be mad anymore. Carbon said it sounded like Mr. S is a "dark wizard". They started talking about the signs that he might be a dark wizard, one of which is apparently that he "leaves the room for awhile and tells you all to wait for him".
The schedule of getting her to and from preschool pretty much negates any value I get from the three hours of childcare, so that can't be the reason I'm doing this with her. I don't really care about the academics right now, either. We are just trying to bridge the difference between being home or with a nanny and going to Carbon's Sudbury school - which she was not ready for emotionally or socially. I think this class is going to provide that bridge.
My four-year-old also had a difficult time emotionally and socially the day he tried the older kids' Sudbury-type school. I brought him back home, but had wondered if the school down the block might provide a gentler kindergarten for him, with the rhythm of a traditional school day providing a cushion against the chaos of being with ten other small children.
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