Preschool- and so it begins

For some history- As some of you may remember, Nathan used to go to my SIL's before I went on maternity leave. I loved being able to leave him with family, where I knew he was safe and having fun with his cousins, but I did not like the drive and I was looking for a setting where he'd have to interact with lots of kids. At one point, I actually did put him in a regular child care center, but I pulled him out and put him back with Kara after just one week- it didn't feel right. 


I decided about 6 months ago that we were getting close to the time when I'd like for Nathan to start going to school part time. Even when I was planning to go back to work, I thought I would find a program for him just for his own enrichment and enjoyment. Sure, I can teach him at home, but he misses the social interaction and classroom setting that he would otherwise get. Over the past few weeks, I had researched child cares (important to differentiate child care from pre-school), knowing that I would have to find a place for the boys when I start school in May. I felt like Goldilocks- this one's too big, this one doesn't feel right, etc. One was right by UCF and came highly recommended, but the waiting list was 6 months long and I didn't love the infant room, nor did I much care for the administration. 


So, here I am, trying to figure out how to get what I want without breaking the bank or having to make crazy drives across town- the added hitch is that most "pre-schools" don't accept infants, and even many day cares have scaled back on infant care due to the ratios. I did find one place that would be acceptable, but it would cost an arm and a leg, plus with anyplace I go, I would have to decide up front how many days to send them, and that may change with my school schedule. I don't want them away from me on days off, and I certainly don't want to pay for days I won't use. I also felt pretty strongly that Montessori was a good fit for us, so I was leaning in that direction. 


Ultimately, I came up with a plan to send Noah to my SIL's (so glad she has tentatively agreed to watch them!!), Nathan to pre-school part time, and then Nathan will go with Noah to my SIL's when he's not at pre-school. I pared my list down to three pre-schools, school "A" is a very small private Montessori school that I just discovered, "B" is a large well-established Montessori, and "C" is a large private school right near our house.


I rather felt as if I was on House Hunters, inspecting each one and weighing the pros and cons. Of course, in House Hunters they never find one that's exactly what they want, and looking at schools is no different. 


When it came down to it, school C was VERY expensive, but they offered "financial aid" on a case by case basis. Each case was decided individually by the director once you presented your financials. Being that there was no set criteria, social justice alarm bells started going off in my head and I decided that I couldn't send Nathan to a school that didn't have a fair and equitable policy for financial aid. Also, because it's a large grade school, drop off/pick up seemed like it would be a nightmare (I would have Noah with me too). The classroom was nice, but the teacher was barking orders at the kids and I didn't like that. The room was small and overstimulating too. The final straw was that they don't accept VPK, and since I don't want to keep changing schools, I would need to pay for VPK completely out of pocket. No thanks. 


School B, which I'd had my heart set on, turned out not to offer anything less than a 5 day program. I had decided I didn't want Nathan in Montessori 5 days a week just yet because a) the cost, b) my schedule, and c) I think he needs to have some "fun" time to balance the structure and organization of Montessori.


School A, which I only just decided to even check out because I was initially unsure of their location and I'd not heard of them before, turned out to be perfect. It's small, only three classrooms, and the director has been teaching Montessori for 30 years. Though the classrooms are sparse and there is a definite undercurrent of order, I like the academic concepts taught, particularly the focus on scientific inquiry and exploration. They offer part time programs, and miraculously have openings. I can send my own lunch (sounds weird but at most child care centers you can't, and they feed the kids school lunch type garbage). My biggest concerns are whether there will be a lack of social interaction, and whether it will dampen Nathan's "whimsicality," but I want to give it a chance. The classrooms are multi-age and they do offer VPK, so that's a plus. Also, they begin at two, so I could put Noah there right at two (possibly). They have an open door parent policy, meaning not only can you come visit the room, but you can also drop in and work with your child. I did see one dad there working with his kid, so that was pretty cool. 


The drive once I start school won't be fun if I have early classes (and I'm sure I will), because I will have to go down towards Avalon Park, out to Chuluota, then back to UCF. I'll only have to do this until Aug 2013. It's only a year. It's only a year. It's only a year. LOL.


Because I think he's ready, but mainly because I don't want to lose our spot, I have registered him for two days a week beginning in January. I took him over today to turn in our deposit and check it out, and he seemed immediately comfortable- he even asked if he could take off his shoes and go play (thank you Kindermusik and Amaya Papaya, now Nathan thinks playtime anywhere should be preceded by removing shoes). The director offered him a book while he was waiting for me to complete the paperwork, and he was thrilled that they had Dr. Seuss' Fox in Socks. The director sat down next to him and talked to him about the book, much the way I would. No bubbly preschool teacheriness, no handprint art on the walls, but lots of kids industriously working away at their tasks and seeming very happy at the same time. 


Oh yeah, and I was so nervous about the whole thing that I forgot to even ask which two days a week to bring him!!!

Breakthrough

Yesterday was a "breakthrough" day. For both kids, actually. Noah only got up once during the night, and that was at almost 4 a.m. What a difference that makes in sleep quality!! Then (later in the day), Nathan came into Noah's room while I was changing Noah's diaper, and said, calm as anything: "I pooped in the potty." And sure enough he did. I think it was an accident, but either way, we had to drop everything and make good on all of the promised "superprizes." We drove his monster truck, got frozen yogurt, and of course we called grandma to tell her. Then, he went two more times that afternoon and asked for more frozen yogurt. So we had to renegotiate our reward chart on the fly :) Now Nathan is in underwear full time except for nights- he has been having dry diapers consistently for a while now, and as I posted last week, we had made a few trips outside the house in underwear. I expect there to be a few accidents, of course, but I like that we waited until he was pretty much self-trained to make the big switch.

It turns out that underwear is not necessarily "easier" than diapers. In some ways, in fact, diapers are easier because you can change them at your convenience. Now, if Nathan has to potty, we need to make arrangements NOW. By the way, I highly recommend one of these. 

I continue to marvel at how quickly time goes by. Somehow I thought that staying home would make the days go slower, but the days still race by at breakneck speed. I realized, too, that I was incorrect in thinking that I'm taking an awful long time to get everything under control in the morning and be able to get out of the house. Rather, when I was working, I was scheduled within an inch of my life and thereby forced to do everything at an unreasonably fast pace. This speed is normal, it just feels slow by comparison. 

Ponds

This week we are learning about ponds and the animals in them. Last night we were doing a task where we pick a number and then stack that number of turtles on the log. Nathan says to me: "actually, those aren't turtles. They're tortoises." And you know what? He turned out to be right! I was cracking up.

This week in review

We managed to keep ourselves quite busy this week. On Monday, actually, we didn't do too much because late Sunday evening I came down with an awful stomach bug and still didn't feel like myself on Monday. Luckily, Jason was home to help out so I could recuperate a bit.

On Tuesday, we went to Amaya Papaya and- here is the exciting part- when I asked Nathan if he wanted to wear a diaper or underwear to AP, he said "underwear!!!" I explained to him what this meant- no diaper and that he'd have to use a big potty at AP, and he said fine! I was fine with it, since he's had dry diapers almost all the time and AP is small with an easily accessible potty. Before we left, he wanted to take a picture with his big boy underwear- sorry for the quality but it was one of those snap-it-quick-before-he-changes-his-mind pics:

The trip was wildly successful, he used the potty at AP a few times and had no accidents at all. Yesterday I let him wear underwear to Publix, same outcome. We're making progress! Once I convince him to poop on the potty, I think we'll pretty much be able to go straight into underwear! He can still list off every reward we've ever offered him, but then refuses to actually do it.

We're also working on naps. He so desperately needs one, but lately it's been rough. He will fall asleep in the car, but I don't like that because I don't want him conditioned to only fall asleep in the car. At home, mostly he lays in bed for an hour but talks, says he has to pee, says he's sad, etc. And his new thing is refusing to put his head on the pillow, smirking at me, and then crying when I take away stuff as punishment. There's really no point in taking things away, because then he cries and a) he's too worked up to go to sleep, and b) I have to listen to it. Now I am trying two things: a set naptime at 1:30 p.m., before which is lunch, booktime, a few minutes of quiet play, and then potty- hoping the routine will help, and secondly a "timer" that goes off at 3:00. Basically I glance in around 2:55 and if he is still awake I set the timer for 5 minutes. These things seem to be helping, with my nap success rate going up significantly since we have instituted these new rules.

One more picture, then onto grown up stuff. Jason made pancakes (which Nathan refused to eat) so I told him to throw some chocolate chips in and then tell Nathan it was a giant chocolate cookie. I thought he was going to fall for it, but then he figured out how to pop the chocolate chips out and just eat those. Stinker.

OK, wait, one more picture because it's not fair to have two of Nathan and none of Noah. This is the boys showing off their Halloween socks one last time:

Yesterday was Jason's and my 5th wedding anniversary! To celebrate, we went to a restaurant out at the Cocoa docks- I had wanted to go there forever and scored a groupon for half off earlier this year, but it's quite a trek and we've been pretty busy. My in-laws watched the boys for us, and we enjoyed a nice evening of seafood and shocktops before heading back to get the boys at the late late hour of 9:00. LOL. Hey, at least we made it. Sadly, the food did not live up to my (admittedly high) expectations, but at least we had some quality time together. We did exchange cards, and Jason got me five lottery tickets, one for each year of marriage. Here is the funny part. Check out the first card. When I started scratching it, I was sure that he was playing one of his tricks on me (he's famous for his trickery). Pretty soon, we were both cracking up, as I kept scratching away. What are the chances? Is this lucky or unlucky for our marriage? And how is it possible that this ticket only wins us $10????

On Noah

I think Noah deserves his own post, don't you? As of today, Noah is just shy of 13 weeks/3 months. He continues to be an "easy" baby, only crying every once in a while. I am constantly amazed at the sharp contrasts in personalities between him and his brother, even at this young age. Where Nathan needed to be held, Noah prefers to be in the swing or bouncy seat. Where Nathan giggled, Noah instead prefers to talk in long oohhhhhhhs and ahhhhhhs. Nathan had to have his paci all the time, Noah could take it or leave it. He is very contemplative and watches everything. He particularly loves to watch his brother when they are in the car (they sit next to each other); sometimes with an adoring look and sometimes with an intense "I'm plotting to take over your top spot" look. 

He loves baths and being outside. He's not a big napper- he just dozes a little here and there and then takes one big nap in the afternoon. Unfortunately, he is not yet sleeping through the night- in this aspect he's similar to his brother (Nathan slept through at 4 months or so), but we moved him into his crib regardless. His room is just across the hall from ours, so it's not that far of a walk. Typically, he's up at 2 and 5. I believe he is what is called a trained night feeder, and the literature suggests that I "wean him off" the night feedings. I don't see how you can do that other than not feeding him and letting him cry, which I refuse to do. Instead, when he wakes up, I try to turn his crib soother on. If after the first round of that, he's still making noise, I feed him. Luckily, he usually goes right back to sleep after he eats. It's just the not having a solid block of sleep that is wearing on me. I realized, in going through my old blog that with Nathan, that I pretty much ALWAYS got rest because Jason and I tag teamed night feedings. In fact, I have a blog entry from when Nathan was around 3 months or so saying that it was the first full night I'd done myself and I was TIRED. Ha. 

We've been working on tummy time, which Noah hates, and laying on his back on the baby gym. This has been harder to make time for, because I don't like to do it when there's one adult, one dog, and one toddler in the house. I try to reserve tummy time for Nathan's nap time (if and when he has one). Noah also just started sitting in his bumbo seat and now also has a tray for it, so he can sit with us when we are at our "work" table. We have an infant to toddler high chair that I think he's ready for and then he'll be able to sit at the kitchen table with us too rather than in a corner on the floor in his bouncy seat. 

I think that's all! 

"home-schooling"

One of the things I was looking forward to about staying home was the opportunity to teach Nathan. At the same time, the idea completely overwhelmed me, because I'm not "teacher-y" or crafty, and I didn't really know what kinds of things I should be teaching him. After a month or so of taking stock of my supplies, researching, and adding to my collection, I think we're finally in a good place. Luckily, I also found a few great websites that has printable modules for different topics, so a lot of the lesson planning is done for me. My favorites are:
http://www.2teachingmommies.com/ and
http://www.1plus1plus1equals1.com/

They both have lots of searchable and downloadable content, and though they are faith-based I have found it easy enough to just skip over or reframe those parts. A lot of people (especially my still-working friends) have asked what a "typical day" looks like for us, so here goes. Keep in mind that even though it sounds structured, it really isn't. There's no real order to this list, and many of the items only take a few minutes. The spaces are filled in by free play, naps (ha, on rare occasions), or snacks/meals. Also, many activities that we do cover more than one topic area (or maybe I have just not sorted them correctly in the list below).

- ADLs/hygiene: we're working on getting dressed independently, brushing teeth, washing hands, and potty
- Science: this is my area of expertise, so this one is easy. We learn about an animal, cut open a fruit or veggie to learn its parts, or talk about life cycles. I tend to focus more on life sciences because that's my comfort zone, but Jason does more of the non-life science/math with him.
- Gross and fine motor: we do lacing, stacking, drawing, mosaic stickers, gluing
- Pre-writing, mazes
- Cognitive: basic patterning, sorting, opposites, puzzles
- Counting, learning numbers and letters
- Cooking projects
- Outdoor play: bubbles, sidewalk chalk, checking on our garden, just running around
- Singing: some of the lesson plans come with songs that can be sung to a well known melody (lucky for me, lol)

One key I have figured out is "pre-staging." So if there are any projects I might want to do, or things that require setup like brushes and paper towels, I set those up in a bin underneath our "project table." If/When we get to that project, everything is right there so I don't have to ask a two year old to be patient while I run around trying to find all the parts I need. Generally, each Sunday I pick out a few educational toys that haven't been played with for a while and place them underneath our table. I rotate these out regularly, because a) then I don't feel guilty that we have toys just sitting around, and b) Nathan responds better when it's something he hasn't seen in a while. I also pre-print all of our "worksheets" and keep them filed so I can easily pull out a theme/module (Cars, Nemo, dinosaurs).

Under the table, there's also one bin that stays there. Contents include crayons, safe scissors, glue stick, wipes, paper towels, clothespins, and a pen.

I now have a new "station" that's set up on the side of our refrigerator. I wanted to get a large pocket chart to place all of our stuff for the week, but instead I ended up with four magnetic pockets. They're big enough to hold small craft items or a book. I have it split out into subjects (which you probably can't read, but they are science & math, art/music/movement, reading & writing, and values & the world) so that I can offer a variety and give Nathan choices. I don't know if my subject areas are "right" but it made sense to me. You can see that values and the world is a little empty- I'm struggling to find age-appropriate stuff for that one.














Aside from "school, we also try to get out of the house at least once a day- just a trip to Target or Publix can present learning opportunities, break up the monotony, and possibly even give Nathan a chance to fall asleep on the ride home.

Surprisingly, I have not felt stir-crazy, deprived of adult contact, etc. The two things I can attribute this two are Jason's schedule, which affords me a break in the afternoon when he arrives home (plus he handles Nathan's bath and bed routine each night) and the fact that I get to see my friends and have "me" (gym) time much more than I did while I was working.