Lucas's First Day, Year Three

Today was Lucas's first day of his third year at Arbor Montessori School. He goes to school five days a week from 8:30 - 11:30 and when he turns five in January he will become an "afternoon child" and stay until three o'clock. As I was driving to pick him up my heart was just bursting with joy that he is in such a wonderful place. Looking back on my post about his first day at the school two years ago, I realize Arbor has this effect on me.

When we first toured the school and got a glimpse of a classroom in action, we (and every parent we were with) were stunned silent at how peaceful a classroom of thirty plus children (ages 2-6) could be. The teacher and her helper were hanging back, observing the children and answering questions when needed. The children were navigating the room on their own. Finding "work" to do, chatting quietly with friends, going to the bathroom (without permission,) coring an apple, painting...

I remember specifically a girl painting a small picture from start to finish (getting out the paints, preparing her station and hanging the painting to dry on a string with clothespins when she was through.) I'll never forget her beaming smile and little jump in the air when she looked at her finished product - a private celebration before she was on to the next thing.

We had no intention of going the private school route when we embarked on this tour. It was a last minute "let's just check this Montessori thing out" sort of thing. But I think both Chris and I knew immediately that this was where we wanted Lucas to be.

I love how beautifully and efficiently the school is run. The big people have everything so structured and systematic that the little people have an enormous amount of freedom.

One of my favorite examples is how they have their snack. It's up to the child if they want snack that day. (Most of the time it is one of the highlights for Lucas but occasionally he gets too busy and doesn't think to stop for a break.) There are four bracelets near the snack tables. This prevents a bottleneck in the snack area. When a child wants a snack, they take a bracelet, prepare their snack and sit down. At the snack station, pictures show how much snack they can get (four grapes, two slices of cheese, etc.) A designated older child has made any necessary preparations in advance (slicing carrots, getting dip out of the fridge, etc.) A younger child can also link up with an older child to make muffins or banana bread. The teacher is uninvolved until the batter goes into the oven. Any eggshell pieces just add crunch ;)

About six weeks ago Lucas started asking to go back to school. I asked what he was looking forward to most and he said "the chains." He got a lesson on this from Ms. Deedee toward the end of school last year. The chains and the golden beads are how they learn math. I don't know all the ins and outs but I will try to explain as I understand it. When a child holds a single golden bead in his hand he can see what it looks like and feel its weight. Then he sees what ten strung together looks like and can feel the difference in weight. Ten "tens" (one hundred) form a square. Ten "one hundreds" form a heavy cube. This gives children a concrete understanding of what a thousand is like compared to one. The chains are beads strung together in a single row rather than squares or cubes. They do all sorts of exercises and activities with the beads and chains.

Today, in addition to doing the chains, Lucas got to be the caboose, making sure that none of the new children got lost. Fitting, as our little shepherd is always overseeing others' doings. He is moving into the role of older child and leader this year and we talk a lot at home about what makes a good leader.

At the picnic after school (we stay almost every day to picnic with other morning children in the arbor) I witnessed a very cute Lucas/Audrey interaction. She noticed that he was taking home a roly-poly in his empty chic-fil-a fruit cup. She ran up to him with her enormous sky blue eyes and lighter-than-ever blonde hair and said, "Lucas, I have a great idea! You can take this roly-poly home and protect it for me and I can get it when I come to your house! Don't worry, it will be ok. It will drink that fruit juice up." Of course Lucas was happy to do it and the roly-polys are enjoying their new environment of dirt, grass and leaves in a ventilated plastic cup on his dresser.

Lucas chose his Arbor pride shirt and madras shorts for the big day.

Proud Mama and mildly upset baby. She didn't want to see her brother go!

Walking through the woods from the parking lot to the school.

b

Reunited with beloved Ms. Kathy (Ms. Deedee's assistant.)