I’ve mentioned it a few times on here, but haven’t told you much about it. Considering school starts in 3 days, now seems like a good time to tell you all about the school Tyler will be attending starting on Monday.
Back in April when Tina and her family decided to move back to Arizona, she asked if I would be willing to take some time to visit a few different schools for her and help her decide where she’d send her boys. They have always gone to Montessori schools, and she had narrowed it down to a few different schools in our area. I spent some time visiting the 3 different schools and observing in each of the classrooms that the boys would be in. One of the schools, Montessori Education Centre, has two campuses and I observed in both. Their main campus is closer to our house, and the north campus is about 15-20 minutes away. Another great thing about this school is that it’s a Charter school, so is free, as public school would be. Montessori can be pretty expensive, so free is nice! Part of the reason I was glad to help Tina, other than because I wanted to save her a trip to the US to do it, was because we were also wondering what we were going to do with Tyler this year for school. Tina has always been a huge advocate for Montessori schools…working as a classroom assistant and her plan is to go back to school to become a Montessori teacher. Ultimately, we decided to go to the north campus for a couple of reasons—the first was because it had room for all 3 boys and the second was because the teacher Josh would have spoke multiple languages including German. Unfortunately, Tina just found out that that teacher up and resigned about a week ago. Josh’s teacher is now a newly certified teacher, so it isn’t quite what Tina had expected. She is a little disappointed, understandably.
I guess this is a good time to give you some background on the Montessori philosophy. It was so good for me to observe in those classes because I really didn’t know much—still don’t, but I have a better idea now. Montessori education is characterized by an emphasis on independence, freedom within limits, and respect for a child’s natural psychological development. They don’t sit in a desk and listen to a teacher lecture the same lesson to the entire class. There are various activities on shelves throughout the room, and they work on their own to learn and discover things by “playing” with the different things. They use all of their senses to learn about the world around them. If they feel like doing some math activities, they do that. If they feel like working on writing, they do that. The teacher will pull a few kids aside throughout the day to do various “lessons” and she chooses the kids who are ready for that particular lesson. Here is another blurb from the Wikipedia about Montessori about Tyler’s classroom: Classrooms are usually outfitted with child-sized tables and chairs arranged singly or in small clusters, with classroom materials on child-height shelves throughout the room. Activities are for the most part initially presented by the teacher, after which they may be chosen more or less freely by the children as interest dictates. Classroom materials usually include activities for engaging in practical skills such as pouring and spooning, materials for the development of the senses, math materials, language materials, music and art materials, and more.
We think this will be a great fit for Tyler, and it will be nice that he is in the same school as Josh and Matt. And of course, it sure is awesome that Tina will drive him to and from school for us! We are so excited for him, and although I was nervous about how he would handle this new experience, he is SO excited! We had the open house last night, and he didn’t want to leave.
Here are Tyler and Ava exploring one of the toys on the shelf. Tina had some name for this activity, but I forget what she called it. Both kids liked it though! Ava ran right into the room and was exploring right along with her brother. She might be ready for Montessori preschool next year!
Here is Tyler with his teachers, Ms. Tiffany (the lead teacher) on the left and Ms. Sammi on the right. Ms. Tiffany is having a baby in September and will be out for a month. She has been teaching in this school since 2006 and all 3 of her kids are at this school as well. There is also another teacher who is his “outdoor environment” teacher. Ms. Tiffany seemed very impressed by the solar system book that Tyler brought for her.
This is the table where the kids have their snack each day. Snack is offered twice a day, and the kids eat two at a time together when they want. They prepare snack themselves, and even clean up their dishes when they’re done.
We all spent some time exploring their classrooms and visiting with teachers, and like I said, Tyler did not want to leave. It’s a nice campus, with a courtyard area in the middle. Matt’s classroom is right next to Tyler’s and Josh’s is right in the center of the campus. The kids even played on the playground for awhile, which is why they have red faces!
It’s an exciting time for us, and for Tyler. It’s hard to believe he’s old enough to be going to school, but it is definitely time. I know he will do very well in school, and will love doing something new every day. I can’t wait to hear about all of his new friends and the things he learns every day. Things are going to be different, and so great!
