Pre-school roundup

The Maestro has had a pretty eventful week. He started school, he got stitches on his chin, and he continues Cello lessons. It seems light-years from where we were Tuesday.

First off, the Maestro is the only kid his age that we know who is doing real pre-school. His other friends, or the kids of Riley’s friends (two groups that overlap somewhat) are doing Joy-school one day a week. There are several ways that this isn’t good for the Maestro. The infrequent schedule, the material they will focus on, and the personality conflicts he would have with those who are running it, all come quickly to mind. He would not have found it a joy. Another option that people we know have done is a pre-school run by some of the high-schools here. The advantage of that option is that they are only three days a week instead of five. The disadvantage of that option is that they are staffed by high-school kids. Do I need to explain that anymore?

Wednesday, he told me that school was “Pretty good”, but that he had been sad. Thursday, he reported joyfully that he hadn’t been sad! When Riley picked him up Friday, he said “I am sad when school is over.” He woke up that morning, drank his milk, and asked “Is it time for school now?” He likes his teacher, and she understands him well enough to watch how much snack he eats (or doesn’t); she can get him to sing songs, and do the actions for them. I have mentioned before that we can’t reliably get him to do that sort of thing for us. There is a cool gym, and a library that lets him check out musical instruments. And all this for only two and a half hours a day!

At first, I felt kind of bad about how much time the Maestro would be spending at school. He is only three, after all. That’s pretty young to get shipped off to have a stranger take care of you, even if it is a stranger with dual certification in special education and early-childhood education. Then I realized that before I started school, I used to spend that much time watching TV everyday. I used to watch Sesame Street and Mr. Dressup every morning, and that was an hour and a half. I am pretty sure usually I watched up to an hour of TV just waiting for those two shows to start. Riley took the more optimistic view that kids used to spend every day running around the neighborhood with their cousins, and ended up with no more adult supervision, but more bones broken and teeth knocked out.

It seems like the Maestro has made a seamless transition into being a pre-school kid. Everything has gone great. Then he put himself down for a nap at noon on Saturday. Things HAVE gone great, but it was eventful enough to wear him out. His excitement to go to school Friday, notwithstanding his reluctance to go Wednesday, demonstrates that this is not a kid who would survive home-schooling. Even if I thought that Riley would survive it, which I don’t. School with other kids and other teachers, that’s the way for us!