You wouldn't believe how old this post really is. I started writing this in a completely different frame of mind from now. It was when Ana kutti had started her Montessori school and in addition to a whole host of things she learned, she was unwell most of the time. That was a very challenging time. Fast forward a year almost, post her 'jumping' performance in her school annual day, and I had to rethink why I started writing this post in the first place.
Enrolling her in this school at the tender age of two had its own problems, biggest her health (or lack of), but the positives have been amazing too. Below are a few highlights of her school life, including the ones that had me up many nights, messaging other girl friends who have crossed this phase and checking discussion groups for some ...
Health
Of course I can't lay the blame on the school per se, especially when so much effort was taken to keep the school spic and span, but it was one worrisome factor. I prided myself in ensuring Anna kutti's robust health and over all development as long as she was under my care- most of her babyhood and beginning of toddler-hood. She got by these nascent years with nary a sniffle nor a stomach ache, however, the moment she stepped into school the deluge started. Mild dysentery, the continuous cold and intermittent fevers. Whew! Friends and well-wishers who have been there and done that had assured me that she would stabilize in a few months, that her immunity will kick up and she'll be alright. Her doctor was amused by our constant worry and assured that 2017's summer had whole families battling dysentery and viral. It was not really because she had started school.
In our quest to push our children off on a pursuit of life skills (at least in my case), we often forget that there are other parameters that can make that dream difficult to achieve...not for the parents with their half-baked ideas of what might be best for the child, but for the child herself who is but a puppet in the hands of her parents. What is the point of learning to master gross motor skills if the child is forever running a temperature or if her immunity fails at the slightest threat of a virus/bacteria, I thought? I had to battle the guilt and wrest it down with some hard logic which works depending on the side one was in. There is a school of thought which asserts that children thrive physically and mentally when they spend a better part of their toddler-hood at least up to 3 years at home under their mother's care. My mother and husband believe in that and earlier in her academic year they had a tough time adjusting to my decision.
A year on, I am relieved that she enjoys going to school and meeting her friends. The cough, cold and fever are still part of her life, but She likes the 'akkas' and her teachers and there is never a day when she has told me she didn't want to go to school.
Learning
There is no doubt that the interaction with kids her age has helped Anakutti to learn and mingle better. And it is delightful to hear her come home and repeat in her childish babble something that she learnt in school, of course it did not sound like anything that I have read or heard in my life time - Montessori rhymes and stories are grounded in reality, so Incy wincy spider or Twinkle twinkle little star did not make an appearance. But just to hear her prance around and sing something was fun.
However, the icing on the cake was how fast she got toilet trained. Even before she joined school, her teacher had asked us parents to get our wards toilet trained. I cringed when her head-teacher said bluntly - "These days you parents are lazy and because of pampers children don't get toilet trained early." She was right! We hadn't taken potty training seriously as Ana kutti was still only about two years and pampers were an easier option. She wanted us to start making them sit on the potty every half an hour, so that they get into a habit of doing their potty. Yep, tough job. S and I had started her toilet training just a couple of months before she started school with mixed results. But as she started school she has successfully got herself toilet trained and is now so independent about it - wanting to complete the process including sliding up the commode, perching on it on her own and wiping herself after.
In addition to learning rhymes and identifying colours, the children are exposed to a lot of material. Her observation sheet has parameters like Exercise of Practical Life which includes dry pouring, folding (napkins, her work mats), work with single piece puzzles, threading, care of self, grace and courtesy, etc. I loved it. Her fine motor skills and gross motor skills were getting used because of these activities. Most of all she was learning to sit properly and eat her food independently, just about managing to keep her stuff orderly (after a year there that is still a challenge, though her teachers say she does exactly as she is told at school, hmph!), and richly adding words to her vocabulary (I shall take some credit for that as there must be some recompense for talking so much with her).
Interaction with School:
Montessori allows parents to integrate themselves with the school, and so we had parents who volunteered for story telling, celebrating a particular festival or teach regional songs to the children. There were visits to the zoo, circus, puppet shows etc and we car pooled through it all. I have a good rapport with her friends' parents and that is because I see them so often.
The cherry on the little cupcake however has been watching her in her first ever performance in their School Free Expression Day, where she was her usual prancy, bouncy self absolutely at ease in the crowd I am glad that her real nature has not be suppressed and she has actually added to her repertoire of skills.
Enrolling her in this school at the tender age of two had its own problems, biggest her health (or lack of), but the positives have been amazing too. Below are a few highlights of her school life, including the ones that had me up many nights, messaging other girl friends who have crossed this phase and checking discussion groups for some ...
Health
Of course I can't lay the blame on the school per se, especially when so much effort was taken to keep the school spic and span, but it was one worrisome factor. I prided myself in ensuring Anna kutti's robust health and over all development as long as she was under my care- most of her babyhood and beginning of toddler-hood. She got by these nascent years with nary a sniffle nor a stomach ache, however, the moment she stepped into school the deluge started. Mild dysentery, the continuous cold and intermittent fevers. Whew! Friends and well-wishers who have been there and done that had assured me that she would stabilize in a few months, that her immunity will kick up and she'll be alright. Her doctor was amused by our constant worry and assured that 2017's summer had whole families battling dysentery and viral. It was not really because she had started school.
In our quest to push our children off on a pursuit of life skills (at least in my case), we often forget that there are other parameters that can make that dream difficult to achieve...not for the parents with their half-baked ideas of what might be best for the child, but for the child herself who is but a puppet in the hands of her parents. What is the point of learning to master gross motor skills if the child is forever running a temperature or if her immunity fails at the slightest threat of a virus/bacteria, I thought? I had to battle the guilt and wrest it down with some hard logic which works depending on the side one was in. There is a school of thought which asserts that children thrive physically and mentally when they spend a better part of their toddler-hood at least up to 3 years at home under their mother's care. My mother and husband believe in that and earlier in her academic year they had a tough time adjusting to my decision.
A year on, I am relieved that she enjoys going to school and meeting her friends. The cough, cold and fever are still part of her life, but She likes the 'akkas' and her teachers and there is never a day when she has told me she didn't want to go to school.
Learning
There is no doubt that the interaction with kids her age has helped Anakutti to learn and mingle better. And it is delightful to hear her come home and repeat in her childish babble something that she learnt in school, of course it did not sound like anything that I have read or heard in my life time - Montessori rhymes and stories are grounded in reality, so Incy wincy spider or Twinkle twinkle little star did not make an appearance. But just to hear her prance around and sing something was fun.
However, the icing on the cake was how fast she got toilet trained. Even before she joined school, her teacher had asked us parents to get our wards toilet trained. I cringed when her head-teacher said bluntly - "These days you parents are lazy and because of pampers children don't get toilet trained early." She was right! We hadn't taken potty training seriously as Ana kutti was still only about two years and pampers were an easier option. She wanted us to start making them sit on the potty every half an hour, so that they get into a habit of doing their potty. Yep, tough job. S and I had started her toilet training just a couple of months before she started school with mixed results. But as she started school she has successfully got herself toilet trained and is now so independent about it - wanting to complete the process including sliding up the commode, perching on it on her own and wiping herself after.
In addition to learning rhymes and identifying colours, the children are exposed to a lot of material. Her observation sheet has parameters like Exercise of Practical Life which includes dry pouring, folding (napkins, her work mats), work with single piece puzzles, threading, care of self, grace and courtesy, etc. I loved it. Her fine motor skills and gross motor skills were getting used because of these activities. Most of all she was learning to sit properly and eat her food independently, just about managing to keep her stuff orderly (after a year there that is still a challenge, though her teachers say she does exactly as she is told at school, hmph!), and richly adding words to her vocabulary (I shall take some credit for that as there must be some recompense for talking so much with her).
Interaction with School:
Montessori allows parents to integrate themselves with the school, and so we had parents who volunteered for story telling, celebrating a particular festival or teach regional songs to the children. There were visits to the zoo, circus, puppet shows etc and we car pooled through it all. I have a good rapport with her friends' parents and that is because I see them so often.
The cherry on the little cupcake however has been watching her in her first ever performance in their School Free Expression Day, where she was her usual prancy, bouncy self absolutely at ease in the crowd I am glad that her real nature has not be suppressed and she has actually added to her repertoire of skills.
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