Sandwich

How many random little bits can I cram into this post?

* We had a surprisingly nice holiday.No spats. No tension. Lots of food and even more wine (see last post, note my blushes- "muscial"? good grief.) Everyone cooperated and Patrick had so much fun with his cousins I thought the excitement might kill him. He. Was. So. Happy. To. Have. Kids. In. The. House.

* Last Tuesday I went to Patrick's first parent-teacher conference at the preschool (they are required to hold two a year to stay licensed.) During the prior week she had assessed them from a short list of different skills like counting, shape recognition, etc... . Patrick, she began, was able to recognize his printed name. Patrick, I could have told her but did not because, well, why would I, suggested that we change the "a" in his book to two "o's" and then the pig in the story would SPLOOSH! into the water rather than SPLASH! Because, in his words, a big pig like that would make more of a splooshing sound when it hit. He also looked at the word "segue" the other day, had me pronounce it, looked at it again before stating, critically, "One of us is wrong, mommy." And you can see his point. So, yes, he can recognize his name. It is his thing. Also he got all of the shapes right and the colors and he was the only kid in both classes who instantly counted all of the objects in his head and... well, you know Patrick. He's good with these school-y skills. BUT he FAILED scissors. Failed completely. She tried to have him cut a straight line and he almost took off a finger. So she suggested ways I can help him with his scissor work at home, and I was suitably chastened. Numbers are cool and all but numbers can't get you out of a brown paper bag, should the need arise.

The informative part, actually, was getting to hear about how Patrick is blossoming around the other kids. He was very shy and reserved for the first few weeks but she told me that he has come around. He is the go-to man for help with puzzles or the computers and he is always willing to play with everybody. She said he was delightful. And I was delighted. You just want your child to be happy and nice, you know?

* Speaking of schools, this morning Steve and I toured the Montessori school we had talked about last year. Steve loved it. I liked it. It has all of those nifty Montessori materials plus sixteen acres and a few alpaca. But.... I don't know. Something about the place didn't seem quite right for Patrick. If I could articulate it maybe you could help me with it but I am struggling to figure out what did not quite work for me. Maybe *I* am more of a traditionalist and I had a hard time with the apparent lack of structure? But Patrick would totally thrive? I don't know. I will have to think about it and in the meantime I think we need to look some other places, including the public school here. We have another year and a half until kindergarten but it is my nature to freakout early and often. Keeps the blood flowing.

*Hey hey! Blood flowing! I am on a sequiturial ROLL here! Speaking of flowing blood, Steve's sister, the nurse practitioner, convinced me that my stitches should come out. She only leaves them in her patients for three days, she said. She poked at mine and tsk'd and said, yep, they should come out. As I am not anxious to haul myself back to my primary care clinic where I would have to wait and would probably catch something gross, I said ok. She took manicure scissors and tweezers and some rubbing alcohol and removed the sutures. And left. And my abdominal wound promptly popped back open and is slowly leaking blood as I type (four days later.) Steve said it looks like a gun shot wound and, what with the round blackish-reddish hole, I would have to agree.

The universal lesson here is:  um, don't listen to my sister-in-law.

The question is: do I have to get this thing re-stitched? 

Comments

[Candy]

My oldest started out at Montessori, and I think I know what you mean about there being something disturbing about it at first glance.

For me, it was the fact that my child, who was then two and a half, was going to be in one large room with rowdy, robust five-year-olds, who I am sure were planning to do her harm. How on earth could I protect her in such an environment, especially considering I wouldn't even be there!

But she walked into that place on our first visit, and fell in love. She was entranced by the older kids, and loved being able to do whatever she wanted to do (within reason).

She was there for a year before we moved, and then we enrolled her into a more traditional, age-segregated nursery school, but I still have fond memories of the Montessori thing, once I managed to let go of my terror of it.

[jennyg]

I really like your blog.

Please take care of that wound at the doc!! It can hurt and make cysts for a looong time if open wounds don't close properly and THAT can be one giant pain in the ass.

I am very curious to hear what happens. Please, OH please, you also have to tell us all about when you give your SIL the smackdown for taking them out. Really. I don't know why I want to hear that you told her it was stupid and wrong, but I SO FREAKING DO.

[Ironic]

I used to work at a Montessori school in Minneapolis. It honestly depends on what exactly you're looking for as well as what kind of Montessori it is. There two main different schools. AMI (American Montessori International) teaches to the word of Maria.
AMS (The other kind) uses Montessori as a base and builds curriculum and such from her teachings. The difference is that AMS can change it's curriculum or teaching styles while AMI is firm in the Montessori way.
Hope that helps.
I.T.

[bluepaolo]

A little late responding here (the lesson is that I cannot fall behind in my blog reading, even for the holidays, work be damned.) but I feel that I have special INSIGHT into the whole Montessori thing, since I am the only person I know who went to a Montessori school until the SEVENTH grade (except for the four other kids in my graduating class). Not just any Montessori school, but a fundamentalist Montessori (MM's word is law). We had special classes during the last three years to help us transition to a regular classroom (sit and listen together to the teacher? Raise your hand to answer a question?). And I'm debating right now as to whether or not to send my own 2.5 year old through the same process. Anyway, bottom line is that I'm still not sure. I tell people who ask, if your kid is very self directed and disciplined, they will probably thrive. An earlier poster mentioned being concerned about emphasis being on stuff already mastered by her child. If they have already mastered it, they should move the child on to more advanced stuff, that's the whole point. I got to the entire biological classification of animals and plants by the fifth grade because I was interested. It's good for Jeopardy and parties and picking up a certain kind of woman: Elephants - proboscedia, bunnies-lagomorpha, butterflies-lepidoptera. Not so good on the math.
Anyway, I say try him out for a while. And I'll post again after I process what to do for my own child.

[bluepaolo]

A little late responding here (the lesson is that I cannot fall behind in my blog reading, even for the holidays, work be damned.) but I feel that I have special INSIGHT into the whole Montessori thing, since I am the only person I know who went to a Montessori school until the SEVENTH grade (except for the four other kids in my graduating class). Not just any Montessori school, but a fundamentalist Montessori (MM's word is law). We had special classes during the last three years to help us transition to a regular classroom (sit and listen together to the teacher? Raise your hand to answer a question?). And I'm debating right now as to whether or not to send my own 2.5 year old through the same process. Anyway, bottom line is that I'm still not sure. I tell people who ask, if your kid is very self directed and disciplined, they will probably thrive. An earlier poster mentioned being concerned about emphasis being on stuff already mastered by her child. If they have already mastered it, they should move the child on to more advanced stuff, that's the whole point. I got to the entire biological classification of animals and plants by the fifth grade because I was interested. It's good for Jeopardy and parties and picking up a certain kind of woman: Elephants - proboscedia, bunnies-lagomorpha, butterflies-lepidoptera. Not so good on the math.
Anyway, I say try him out for a while. And I'll post again after I process what to do for my own child.

[jen]

Re: Montessori--my son is almost 3, and has been in a Montessori program since 18 mos. He is also somewhat precocious (and very high energy), but I can't say enough good things about the program, at least for the through 6 year old. Although on the surface it doesn't seem like it, there is a lot of structure. My son has thrived in the program, and they also do a lot to nurture the social skills as well as academic, which I think can get lost when you're dealing with bright kids. Post-six years old, I'm not sure if we'll continue with the program, but I love it for under 6.

[Jaz]

I'm coming in late here, but I had to comment on Amy's staple comment. Two things:

#1 Perhaps Patrick could staple your wound shut? :;ducks and runs::

#2 When my brother was about 10, he played with the stapler, and stapled his ring finger. Left the staple in, played with the cats, and CLEANED THE GERBIL CAGE! Then he took the staple out. This was two days before Thanksgiving. On Thanksgiving, my mom had to rush him to the ER because his hand was swollen three times its size. He was in the hospital for several days. They almost cut his arm open from the ring finger down to the elbow to drain it. Ew. He recovered, though, but has since injured his hands at least once a year, sometimes seriously (and he's 44 now). No moral or advice (except perhaps to not clean the gerbil cage with a staple in your finger). I just felt the need to tell the story.