At the beginning of February, Matt's aunt Barb came from CA to pick up her 11 week old great dane puppy at a town not far from us! Aunt Barb, Suzanne (puppy breeder) and two of the puppies came to see us. It was great to be together (we had met up with A. Barb in Colorado last June so the boys know her). We went the next day down to Suzanne's house to visit a little longer (the last picture is in Suzanne's back yard).
Last week, I went to the kindergarten open house! How can I already be going to this? Anyways, I was happy with the feeling I got there. The principle ran the open house. She seemed friendly, experienced, keen on knowing each kid in her 214 student elementary school. For such a small school, it seemed like the school had lots of resources like occupation therapy available to the students. There are two kindergarten (2010 class size is numbered at 23 currently but that could go up or down) classes where one is half day and the other full day (you pay $3000 extra for your kid to attend full day). So we met both teachers, the school nurse, the lady who screens the children ( I forget her title), the special education head, the school secretary and the aide in the full day class. Then we could go see the kindergarten classrooms. I got to talk to the half day teacher at this point. I really like her! She doesn't have an aide and loves parental help in the classroom! She has an art minor so does her best to bring that into her teaching. Like she plays classical CDs while they are working because there has been a study done saying it promotes learning...or something along those lines. She has them up and moving every 20 minutes (again siting a study that promotes this...study or no study, I know my kids last about 20 minutes or less doing something engaging). She gave an example of doing an exercise touching their elbow to their opposite knee and counting to it. She has a sand table and a reading corner. It was a cheery classroom. Because they are just 8:30 to 11:30, she has the mentality that they "can finish tomorrow" which I was glad to hear though she encourages completing what they can.
The pictures are very cute. I just loved visiting with the boys both days. All of the puppies have gone to their new homes and I can concentrate on training Poggi now.I hope I get to see you again sometime.
ReplyDeleteSuzanne