I attended Parent Education night at Aidan's school this week. It was an informational night to educate the parents more about Montessori, the materials, and how the program works. It was very informative and I left totally overwhelmed. The amount of enrichment these children are surrounded with every day is unbelievable. The math area alone left my head spinning. Everything is hands on and they are able to do some very complex math with the materials. Everything is done a certain way and I am wondering how my lil guy is doing with following the steps. He is more of a guy who likes to do things his OWN way. I know it may be frustrating now ( although he hasn't said this) but I am so glad that it is teaching him discipline. He is still loving school and I am so happy. I got the chance to observe his class early in the week ( without him seeing me) and then met with his teacher the next day to discuss his sensory and fine motor issues. It is really amazing to watch a good Montessori class "in action". All the kids were on task interested in their own "work". I watched Aidan do orange juice squeezing ( and drinking the juice he squeezed). He squeezed the oranges, drank the juice, washed and dried his dishes, and then put everything away! He even took off his little apron he was wearing and hung it up on a coat hanger. I had no idea he was capable of all this and NO prompting from the teacher! Things are about to change at home. lol. Overall, his teacher said he is doing well. He is having a few issues not staying in his area but his teacher thought it was because he is such a curious little boy and was not concerned. Everything is still pretty new to him so hopefully after he is more familiar with all the materials this won't be an issue. I gave her some materials that we use in OT to help him. She was thrilled and is using them with many of the children in the class. Next month I get to spend a whole weekend doing parent education and we get to actually work with the materials. I am so excited! As with everything, a Montessori School is only as good as the program and the teachers. There are good ones and bad ones out there. I have to say that I think we scored big and are at one of the BEST ones. :) This school prides themselves in staying true to Montessori ( some schools just take bits and pieces) yet staying current with the times. The kids receive computer time, Spanish, Music, and PE every week as enrichment classes.
It is the HOT season for Southern California. The Santa Ana winds have started blowing in and the temps have been 100+. It is the "perfect storm" for forest fires. I am praying that things stay calm. The transformer in front of our house blew yesterday afternoon due to the heat and we ( along with about 10 other houses) lost power. I decided to make the most out of it and finally camp in our back yard ( one of the things on our bucket list we didn't accomplish)! I built a fire in our fire pit so we could roast marshmallows and make smores and pitched our tent. I was VERY impressed with myself since this is a "daddy job" and I didn't think I could do it. The party quickly moved out front while they changed out the transformer last night around 9ish. It was quite fascinating for a little boy ( and his mom!). Several of the neighbors came over and a tackle football game ensued with Aidan and 3 other boys. The SDGE workers were so nice. One of them even offered to let Aidan control the big crane, but he was to nervous. Another one gave him an ice cold gatorade. To quote Aidan, " it was the best day ever". ;) I love me some power crew!
We ended up staying about 20 minutes in the tent and then Aidan thought the ground was to uncomfortable so we came in and slept on the couches in the living room. The power was turned back on some time in the middle of the night.
roasting marshmallows. The fire started making me nervous and I didn't want to see our house go up in flames ,so I put it out after we were done with the Smores.
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