Middling Mom: Parents Night

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Parents Night

So for those of you who don't know, I am a full time working mom. Let me tell you that this is not my first choice for parenting but the need for income unfortunately overrides my ability to stay home.

I presently work for a Diesel engine company that makes engines for semis and other large equipment. Here are some photos from when our family's got to tour the plant last summer.

So two days a week Sadie goes with my mother-in-law, one day with my mom and (since she was 6 tiny weeks) the other two days she comes to work with me and goes to the on site "school" (I would love for her to go full time but lets face it $250 a week is just not in our budget).
The school she attends is Bright Horizons Montessori school and let me tell you, I just absolutely love this place. The school is so very nice inside and all of the teachers and staff are amazing. Call me a "nerd" but the school is very cool and I wish I could have gone there when I was a kid. It is an all Montessori curriculum which are, in my opinion, very neat (come one when you see preschoolers make maps with all of the continents labeled on them that just has to impress you).

So last night we had open house at the school. Sadie is (sadly) moving out of the infant room and into toddlers, so we went to learn a little about what she will be doing in her next adventure.

The worst thing about this whole ordeal was that I drove an hour to work (yes people I drive an hour to work and an hour home every day), an hour to my mother-in-laws (normally around 45 minutes but thanks to traffic and construction...), an hour back to my work (since that is where the school is) and an hour back home. I was so sick of driving by the end of the night but Steve hurt his neck somehow (we have no idea how or when) and really should not be driving.

So we got in and dropped Sadie off with the other kids and then went down to the toddler classroom. I was sad and I didn't want to go in :( Why is my baby growing up so quick?

The toddler room was much more advanced than the infant room and there were lots of new things for her to "explore" (read: destroy). So the teachers talked to us a bit about what they do down in toddlers and the activities they do. They now have circle time, which requires the kids to sit in a circle (if they can get Sadie to sit still for any length of time then bless 'em). They talk about the weather, day of the week, more colors, numbers, etc during circle time. They also now have more "work" (all of the "toys" in a Montessori environment are called "work" and their are all aligned neatly with the pieces together on specific places on child accessible shelves) which gives them skills that enhance respect for others, their enviroment and themselves. Below is an example of what work shelves looks like.

The told us a lot about some of the work they will be doing and the most interesting one is called spooning. It is not what you think it is...

Spooning is taking one object from a dish to anoter dish with a spoon.

They always go left to right so this gets the child in the habit of looking at things (books and words) left to right.

The main mantra of Montessori is "don't do for the child what they can do for themselves." So this includes eating (even if it gets all over them), opening and putting away their own lunch box, putting on and taking off shoes, coat, etc., brushing their own teeth, putting themselves to sleep and so on.

They told us to bring several changes of clothes in the toddler area since most days she may get dirty or wet during water play, dirty during lunch (since she eats on her own, no sippy cups allowed), makes bubbles and other "recipies" (last week they made apple pie) and they go outside every day even if it is raining (they play under the patio and have music time).

So then one parent asked about discipline and how it is handled. Well, basically they do not do discipline yet at this level besides removing the child from the situation and telling them what they have just done and why it is wrong.

Then one parent asked about biting.

It was all over.

Apparently, there is a biter in the school somewhere and one father even refered to her as the "pitbull" and said that he wants to drop kick her because she has bitten his daugher so many times. I was like freaking out thinking it was Sadie and Steve was like giving me the look like "are they talking about Sadie?" So these parents went on and on and on saying that this kid should be kicked out for biting and they were all getting angry. So the director of the center comes in and says how hard it is not only on the parent with the bitten child but the biting parent as well and how they are trying to help this child through this stage and they have called in specialists to help shadow the child and find out why she is biting and all.

So I am like brainstorming on who it could be and the other parents asked if her child bit would they tell her and they said yes. I was so relieved that they have never told me Sadie bites. Sadie did get bit once but I just thought it was normal kid stuff and it has not been a recurring thign so I didn't think anything of it. Well, finally these people calmed down and I gave Steve the look "like get Sadie and lets get the heck out of here in case they think it is her or something."

I still have no idea who the biter is but I do know the following facts...