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Posted in Home Educating
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---If you haven't read the prior post, this picks up from the end of that one---
As I neared the end of my pregnancy with our first son, we had moved, yet again, to Jacksonville, FL. So I applied to substitute teach in some of the area schools. This gave me the new opportunity to experience elementary classroom teaching. Now granted, things are always harder for a sub, since a sub doesn't have the relationship and advantage of continuity with her class generally. But during those occasions I couldn't help but feel how lamentably difficult it was to do anything but keep them "occupied" and quiet and "busy," usually with worksheets that had been left by the teacher. An inordinate amount of time was spent taking the class to the bathroom, lining up for lunch, lining up for water fountain, passing and collecting papers and waiting for everyone to finish. I had been accustomed to having my high schoolers for 45 minute periods, not having a group for an entire day. I definitely came away with a new respect for El-ed teachers and especially for their endurance! At any rate...all such work became suspended when I gave birth to our first little pride and joy, Connor. I'll fast forward here up to the time when everyone starts looking at preschools. Now I'd been faithful to build our little home routine for Connor from the start. We'd read books while he was finishing his breakfast in his high chair, then he'd have "room time" in which I would set up different activities for him to play with....a puzzle corner, food set up on a table, books, trucks. Then I'd come back and help him pick everything up, doing ABC's together, reading some of the books till all was tidy. During our walks together we'd watch the schoolbus go by and I hesitated to proclaim what jumped to my lips, "Someday when YOU'RE a big boy, you'll ride the big yellow bus!" I didn't. There was a pang of puzzlement already. All of my careful ordering of his day was suddenly going to be signed off to the institution up the hill? Then one day a sign popped up in the yard of this quaint little Victorian home in our town of Bath, Maine. A new Montessori school was to open. Ahhh...here was something I could get behind! I'd attended a Montessori school for two years as a preschooler, and had vivid recollections of the pink tower, singing in French, and all the other fascinating little hands on activities. Upon touring the little white "home" school, I was charmed in every way. The teachers played Mozart while children worked, had a beautifully prepared environment...an impressive and stimulating science room and were very dedicated to the purest Montessori methodology. On and on. I racked my brain and the budget to figure out how we could afford the astronomical tuition. Finally, I offered to teach French for a half hour each week to the children so I could get a break. He was in. Well, all seemed well until it several things seemed to be telling me this wasn't going to work. First off, already I could tell we were having to address and retrain attitudes and actions Connor came home with even as a 3 year old. Well, of course as a three year old, I think in retrospect. Their little attitudes are in the prime of self and mimic mode! But another thing: sitting still on "the line" for over half an hour at a time seemed to be a struggle for Connor (as it would be for most healthy three year old boys.) Then one day I observed a little boy sitting in the "time out" chair when I came in to teach French. On my way out the door almost an hour later, that poor child was still sitting in the chair! To top it all off, we'd overdrawn our bank account two months in a row! All of a sudden it just seemed clear to me... Bring him home. I thought "what in the world are they doing in this place that I can't do with him at home? Nothing at all! He doesn't need to learn to sit on a line right now!" So I bought Teaching Montessori in the Home: the Preschool Years, by Elizabeth Hainstock and discovered in its pages ways to make many of the materials, how to present them and the age appropriate activities. It was a treasure trove for me. And I was so excited. Before long, the Navy had orders for us to move to London, England. Part 3 to come....On to England |
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