School Girl

I wish I had a photo to include in this post... it would show Eva glowing with pleasure and pride.

She started going to school this week!

She is attending the school I posted about here and here and here. I just love it- every contact with staff and administration and students has been nothing but positive. They are so warm, welcoming and open. It is a Montessori school and I am very keen on the method and their philosophy. I love it that snack has to be whole foods, and no soda pop allowed. I love it that they have a recycling program where there is no municipal program. I like it that they keep their celebrations low key. I like what I see when I visit the school. I appreciate so much how accomodating they have been to us, how interested they are in knowing about Eva so they can best guide and help her. I love how they want to know me, and Andrew, and Micah. That they want to work together with us. I feel that Eva will thrive. Time will tell!

Eva is doing terrific. She is doing short days to start with and will work up to the full (5.25 hrs) day. The first two days I dropped her off at 8:30 and picked her up after snack at 11:30. The next two days I picked her up after recess at 12:00. When she visited last spring she struggled with the recess part because she doesn't have experience in playground dynamics. So I was glad that she got a couple of days to get to know her environment and classmates before heading out onto the playground. Her first recess she played a little bit then asked for me. Today she played chase with two other little girls! She told me she had a sliding incident so I guess she's still figuring out how to work with and around all the other kids on the play structure. Tomorrow she will stay through recess and I'll pick her up at 12:30 after music class.

Her teacher says she has been "working beautifully" and commented how focused she is when she is working. She said that all the other little girls want to work together with Eva. She also commented how well Eva colours.

Eva's excitement about school definitely outweighs all trepidation and difficulty. The first time I dropped her off, a teacher she didn't know offered to take her to her classroom. Eva wasn't comfortable with that and started to cry. But she overcame it quickly, and happily went with her own teacher- didn't even look back. This morning when she was getting out of the car, her proud enthusiastic grin was priceless. Like I mentioned, recess is challenging for her, but she is not letting it stop her. We did some role-playing about recess, and her teachers are aware that it is a challenge for her and that support seems to be working for her. This morning she did tell me she didn't want to go to school. She wanted to stay home and watch movies. But it didn't take much convincing to get her out the door. This is very tiring for Eva, no matter how much she loves it. I am sure she will be glad for the weekend break.

The evening of her first day was tough! She was being super stubborn and wouldn't listen when I asked her to come get ready for bed, even though we'd agreed it would be a good idea to get ready a little earlier than usual. It ended up being a huge meltdown. Then it struck me! This is a kid who likes to have control. And at school she was faced with tons of unknowns. This was her way of trying to get her balance back. As I realized that I pulled her into a hug and applied the technique I've learned in a number of great parenting books. I verbalized that going to school was a lot and hard. That she doesn't always know what to expect, or what will come next, or where to go. And she immediately relaxed and calmed. The evening went much better after that, and they have been better since (except yesterday when she napped after school and then didn't get to sleep until after 10:30!!).

On the way home in the car today, Eva told me a few things I'd like to record for posterity:

Eva: Today I played tag with two girls.
Me: How do you say 'tag' in spanish?
Eva: I think "taggo", or maybe "tagu".

I love seeing that she is really starting to pay attention to the language. For a long time, she would just kind of blank out when someone was speaking spanish. Now, she is actively listening. She has noticed that a lot of spanish words end with "o"!


Eva: You know a few things. My teachers know everything.

Hahahahaha! I thought I wouldn't get this til at least the preteen years!