Fun at Preschool

Everyday we get an email from Ally's teachers with a brief description of the day and pictures of the students. Its really amazing to hear from adult everyday what happened at school, because we know then what to talk with Ally about - and can ask leading questions to engage her to talk about the activities of the day. I love the pictures most. Its just wonderful to be at my office and get pictures that show what Ally was doing during the day. She has wonderful teachers and seems to really like going to preschool. Ally has not yet managed to nap much at school, but hopefully that will come with time. Or maybe not, and we'll all learn to adjust.

Some pf the pictures look like a ghost is in them, because I blurred out her classmates to protect their privacy on the blog.

The school follows the Emilio Reggio philosophy of "a deep engagement with the child at every level: the design of space; the pacing and schedule of the child's day; the availability of high quality, mesmerizing materials; and, above all, the quality of a child's relationships" it sounded like a bunch of hoopla to Becky and I when we applied here last year. But the school is really an amazing place that focuses on the children and their interests with no set curriculum. From our school's mission statement: "constructivism" - the belief that children are not empty vessels waiting to be filled with adult-given knowledge but are, rather, constructors of their own understandings and experience. The teacher's role in such an environment is to facilitate, guide, observe, support, and inspire children. It really does seem that they do this. Its a cooperative preschool so parents work 1 morning a week about every 3 weeks. Since my schedule is more flexible than Becky's I do it. Its really amazing to see Ally interact with her classmates and the teachers.

In the picture above Ally is painting a large box (appliance-sized) that one of the teachers brought in. The students voted on the colors of the box and on what the box should be.

Painting wood and watching her friend paint beads.

Ally is not really into touching the clay - I keep telling her its like play dough, but she is not all that interested in the actual clay. This day they brought out paint brushes for the kids to use the water-yuck -stuff from the wet clay as paint.

Ally's clay-paint masterpiece!

The school has its own small play yard.

My beautiful Purple Fish girl!

(Her class room is called the Purple Fish Room.)

I am so happy she is wearing her winter hat in this picture. It has gotten pretty cold here for mid October, and Ally's wonderful babysitter has Ally wear a hat to school in the morning and leaves it for Ally to wear when the class goes outside. With all the publicity about flu this year, I figure wearing a hat outside and a proper coat can only help Ally stay healthy.