Well now that it is Oct I think I'll write the back to school post! :) As I mentioned before Mason goes to the Spanish Immersion preschool on Tuesday mornings. It is designed for native English speakers, but the teachers, owner, and secretary are native Spanish speakers. They teach typical preschool curriculum, but they do it all in Spanish. They are a Christian school, sing songs everyday while Mrs. Lorena plays her guitar, have a school garden, compost, recycle, all things I love. At the beginning of this year he was dragging his feet about wanting to go to school. Then after the second or third week Lorena told me there is a child there that has hit Mason the past couple times. I didn't freak out because I know some kids go through a hitting phase. We did figure out that Mason didn't want to go to school because of the "mean boy". I tried to brush it off with him, and tell him that if it happens again to yell at the boy "Hey! Don't hit me!" As much as I wanted to coddle him (he is my sensitive boy - actually both my boys are sensitive) I don't want him to be a wuss or turn into the kid that's always picked on. But after a couple more weeks of him not liking school because of it I decided to talk to Lorena about switching his day. Thankfully the day I was going to talk to her about it I found out he wasn't going there anymore! I don't know the reasons, but I am thankful! He now loves to go to Spanish school and Lorena said he has turned into a completely different kid these past couple of weeks. He is really starting to speak the language a lot more this year. Lorena told me yesterday that Mason, unprompted, told her "cierra la puerta" (shut the door) and later when we was done with the activity they were doing he said "no mas" (no more). We were in Ross on Monday and there was a Hispanic lady with her daughter there speaking Spanish. So he said loudly "Mom she is speaking Spanish." I told him to say Hola and Buenos dias. Anyway the lady loved it, and we all ended up chatting for a bit! It's amazing how quickly kids can pick up language!
A few other things Lorena told me at his conference yesterday:
*He pays attention to detail. He makes sure everything gets put back in it's proper place. She was surprised when he went and put her pen that was on the table inside her binder since that is where she normally keeps it.
*His favorite school activity is puzzles and/or tangrams.
*He wouldn't usually sing along with their songs, but she noticed that he would always stare at the guitar. So one day she asked him to sit on her lap and "play" the guitar with her, and then he sang right along with her! Which now explains why he will get his guitar and say that he is going to play and sing like Mrs. Lorena.
*He loves to learn. He pays close attention to what they are doing, and will even ask her questions about how to say a particular word in Spanish.
*He is well behaved and obeys, but often she has to explain why he has to do something (ex clean up so we can do ___) before he will do it.
*I took a picture of the maze he did at school yesterday. I've never done a maze with him before, and this was his first one at school. Lorena made him do it a couple times to see if he really did it or if it was just chance that he didn't mess up. Apparently he knows how to do them. Thinking back there is a preschool website I let him get on sometimes, and I think it might have a maze on there.
Thursdays both Mason and Paxton go to Kids Day Out at the Rogers Cross Church. They both love it! I was so thrilled that Mason's best friend, Titus, is also in his class. He is always excited to go to "Titus' school" as he calls it. I think Paxton cried briefly the first time or two I dropped him off. The 3rd time he clung to me, but didn't cry. Now the past 2 or 3 times he lunges into his teachers arms without hesitation or a glance back at me. My boys are not home bodies - I'm afraid I may be partly to blame for that. Here are some pictures from their first day of school.
Paxton loves to wear his backpack. He will often fuss when I make him take it off. I guess it makes him feel like a big kid. Masons tells me his favorite thing about the school is the rope. They apparently have all the kids hold on to this long rope when they walk to different parts of the building so they stay together. Why he thinks that is so cool I don't know. Two weeks ago they had a fire truck there for the kids to climb in. When I asked him his favorite thing of the day I thought surely he would say that. Nope it was again the rope. Who does this weird kid belong to? ;o)
The boys are the only ones enjoying their Thursday mornings! I don't usually do anything super exciting - mostly run errands or clean since it is nearly impossible to do it when they are around. I remember seeing this family circus cartoon in the newspaper when I was in high school where the mom was cleaning up the house and behind her was the kids making a huge mess after she had cleaned. It's funny that stuck with me as a teen, but that's definitely how I feel most days I try to clean with my two toddlers around.
