Saturday, February 28, 2009
Makeshift drums
While I was getting ready one day this week Alex and Maya went and got the empty paint pots off their easel to use as hand drums and Alex turned on his old music class cd and they marched around his room dancing and drumming. It was so fun to watch, I love it when they come up with things like this.
Pondering Kindergarten
Ok, I don't usually post philosophical rambling on here. So for those of you who are in it strictly for the cute kid pictures..you may want to just skip this one.
Alex is going to kindergarten next year. That's not what I'm pondering.
We have open enrollment within our school district here in Traverse City and also Michigan has school of choice, we have two charter schools and a hand full of private and parochial schools here too. So choice is great but can be a little overwhelming.
Some choices are easy - we can't afford private school (and don't think they are automatically better anyway) and we have no interest in sending our children to parochial school.
Others are hard.
We fell in love with one of the charter schools. I know Alex would thrive there. It's not too far from our house. Alex has friends that will be going there and I have friends whose kids go there. They have multi-age classrooms and a lot of outdoor learning. But charter schools fill their enrollment with a lottery system. And the statistics are against us this year. Not that many openings (siblings of current students get priority and there are a lot this year) and lots of applications. The lottery is in two weeks and then there will be a waiting list for any spots that open up due to cancellations/moving, etc.
So I started looking at backup plans and went to the parents meeting for our local district elementary. I'm so glad I went because we had visited the preschool there and had come away with a pretty dismal impression.
I really love the kindergarten teacher though. I know Alex would do well with her personality and I liked the way she answered a lot of the questions.
There were some basic school district type things though that left my head whirling a bit. The school district curriculum for kindergarten is set for all day everyday even though only half of the schools in the district are all day everyday. Our school is not. It's two full days and one half day. But the teacher is still obligated to follow the curriculum. Teach the same amount of information in half the time. To 5 year olds. And they pride themselves on being focused on the "basics" of reading, writing and math. So what gets cut for the half time kids.....art, music and PE. Even though those things are proven to boost learning in the areas of the "basics".
The district was also trying to give parents the impression that their children could not start school unless they were completely vaccinated. Which in the state of MI is not true. Parents have the right to sign a waiver.
Other than that, I felt good about the school and won't be quite as crushed if the charter school doesn't work out. But we are still keeping our fingers crossed.
Alex is going to kindergarten next year. That's not what I'm pondering.
We have open enrollment within our school district here in Traverse City and also Michigan has school of choice, we have two charter schools and a hand full of private and parochial schools here too. So choice is great but can be a little overwhelming.
Some choices are easy - we can't afford private school (and don't think they are automatically better anyway) and we have no interest in sending our children to parochial school.
Others are hard.
We fell in love with one of the charter schools. I know Alex would thrive there. It's not too far from our house. Alex has friends that will be going there and I have friends whose kids go there. They have multi-age classrooms and a lot of outdoor learning. But charter schools fill their enrollment with a lottery system. And the statistics are against us this year. Not that many openings (siblings of current students get priority and there are a lot this year) and lots of applications. The lottery is in two weeks and then there will be a waiting list for any spots that open up due to cancellations/moving, etc.
So I started looking at backup plans and went to the parents meeting for our local district elementary. I'm so glad I went because we had visited the preschool there and had come away with a pretty dismal impression.
I really love the kindergarten teacher though. I know Alex would do well with her personality and I liked the way she answered a lot of the questions.
There were some basic school district type things though that left my head whirling a bit. The school district curriculum for kindergarten is set for all day everyday even though only half of the schools in the district are all day everyday. Our school is not. It's two full days and one half day. But the teacher is still obligated to follow the curriculum. Teach the same amount of information in half the time. To 5 year olds. And they pride themselves on being focused on the "basics" of reading, writing and math. So what gets cut for the half time kids.....art, music and PE. Even though those things are proven to boost learning in the areas of the "basics".
The district was also trying to give parents the impression that their children could not start school unless they were completely vaccinated. Which in the state of MI is not true. Parents have the right to sign a waiver.
Other than that, I felt good about the school and won't be quite as crushed if the charter school doesn't work out. But we are still keeping our fingers crossed.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Interesting
A friend posted this website on a forum I belong to. I really have been enjoying the articles on it so I thought I'd pass it along.
www.parentingscience.com
www.parentingscience.com
Monday, February 23, 2009
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Aarrrgh!
I'm really not quite sure how to explain this. Instead of smiling ...everytime I pointed the camera towards her she would walk up towards me and make this face.
The best part of getting a new stove is
THE BOX!!
Just since tuesday this box has been a house, a car, a bus. It's been decorated inside and out with markers. Housed several picnics, several rest times. Gotten a couple windows.....
A peak at spring
Things started melting very quickly last weekend and into the beginning of this week. We had a few days that were close to 50 degrees! We tried to get out and enjoy it as much as possible. The weather was a little tricky for how to dress though - I'm sure the kids were warm in the snowsuits but I knew they were going to end up soaked from all the melting snow and that was the most water resistant clothing they had!
Alex's felt doll
Short hair and pants are a little trickier to make. We recently got some more natural colors of roving so we will be working on some more soon. And at the yarn shop Alex saw some felted eggs and wants to try those too - we'll probably save that for one of our Spring Equinox/Ostara celebration.
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
Felted dolls
I'm trying my hand at felting. We made a couple little felted dolls so far. This is the first one, Maya's. I have to upload the pictures of Alex's yet, he was carrying his around for a while so I had to track it down.
Imbolc...Candlemas....Groundhog Day
We had some friends over to dream about spring and make candles. Alex's are the light orange and blue ones on the holder and then we made the maroon ones and the jar candle. It was our first try with candles, I think I need to get different wicks next time.
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