Last week my husband and I attended a parents information session for my son's classroom. This is his third year in the class and he is quite proud to be one of the class leaders. Of the over twenty students, there just happens to be only four third-yearss, which means there are more younger students than older, something that is just a happenstance of enrollment and classroom matching.
The first day of school only the four third-year students attended. They spent the day going over things I suppose that were speficic to them and talking about how they could be helpers to the younger and newest students.
The second day the second-year students joined the third-years. They were reminded of the routine of the classroom and more expectations were set in preparation for the new students, the first-years, that would be coming on the third day.
As Wednesday started, all the students were in the classroom, but no work was done. No school work that is. But, my son's teacher told us, the students were working very hard indeed. She was setting the stage for the entire school year. She was giving them her expectations and showing by example, using an older student to help, each of the classroom guidelines.
Some of these things are possibly not typical "lessons" students would recieve in a traditional school. For example, they don't walk on the rugs in the classroom during certain times. The three large rugs are areas on which work is done by the students. You select your work, get a mat or floor desk, lay our your space and then begin to work.
In order for that workspace to remain minimally interrupted since many things require things to be laid out that could be disturbed by fast-moving feet, walking is always done around the rugs. If you go in a Montessori classroom later in the school year,you can watch the children effortlessly avoiding the rugs without it looking like they're thinking about it becayse they've been doing it daily.
There were other classroom expectations, such the process to excuse yourself to go to the bathroom, how to wash and dry your hands without leaving a mess for the next person, and how to blow your nose.
My son's teacher said, "they know how to blow their nose, but they also don't. They get the tissue, wad it up and then blow. They get mucous all over their hands." She said they talked about how germs were transmitted, the importance of keeping our friends healthy and how blowing your noce properly could help in that regard.
My son's school—lessons in nose blowing and toilet flushing. Good stuff, that.
The Big Boy Update: My son and I had an argument this morning over something trivial, but important to know: don't shove things at peoples eyes. My eyes. I didn't like it and reactd viscerally. We needed to reset in the car so I got him talking about video games again. He figured out that if it hadn't been for playing video games, his father and I would have never met and that meant he wouldn't exisdt. He's right.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: Aunt Margaret and I picked my daughter up from school this afternoon and went to The Shake Shack, which had only opened un the weekend. We all had shakes and some food while our dog politely waited in the car with the airconditioner on Dog Mode. They have a Dog Custart Cup on the menu, which I got at the end. My daughter held the cup on the ride home and Matisse licked it all gone before we made it half-way hime.
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