siri decided she was done playing with the playdoh that teacher kim made last night. it was pink and smelled like peppermint, unlike the brown and olive-oil smelling one that mommy made.
students (and ms. meg) engaging in the play doh activity. siri is not engaging.
we have toured so many preschools, and only applied to a handful. but, many schools continue to take applications until february, so we toured more, and have several others scheduled for the beginning of the new year.
however, i think we may have found the perfect one for siri! the preschool is based out of the director/teacher's basement, which she spent two years remodeling so it resembles a "conventional" preschool, if you will. teacher kim has a b.a. in early childhood education, worked in preschools prior to opening her own, and home-schooled her two sons (through high school) who are now studying at syracuse and purdue universities. we were a bit concerned about the homeschooling part, until we talked with her about it, and realized that she wasn't some crazy religious nut. she had a good reason, and didn't want to deal with the sf public school system. for those who do not live in the bay area, sf has a lottery system where kids are assigned to schools and are bussed in. i know. it's 2010, and bussing still happens. one more reason why we want to get out of this city by the time siri starts kindergarten.
at any rate, the preschool is really cute. teacher kim did a great job with the remodeling, complete with a mural of jungle animals, and a coconut tree with plastic coconuts hanging from the branches. she handpainted most of the kiddie furniture herself, and serves mostly organic foods. plus, she likes siri and offered her a space to start as soon as possible. we feel relived. this wasn't the type of place we envisioned for siri when we first started looking for preschools, but after visiting so many of them, we had a better idea of what would be best for her. a smaller, more intimate environment with more adult interaction surfaced as the most important criterion in our preschool search.
most of the other places we applied weren't necessarily big, corporate daycare-esque preschools. but, they were big with upwards of 80 total students. granted, the kids would be separated into their own age-specific classrooms, and mingle with the older kids very rarely, the child-adult ratio was not what we wanted. but, we didn't realize this until we actually toured, what i would say a pretty representative sample of the types of preschools out there. in the end, we are choosing a home-based preschool for several reasons. 1. the teacher is the director of the program. many of directors at the schools we visited were credentialed in early childhood education, but that was not necessarily the case for the actual teachers or assistants. aside from teacher kim, one of her assistants also has a b.a. with a minor in early childhood education, and another assistant is working toward her b.a. 2. the teacher-student ratio. at bigger schools, it is easier for kids to get lost among the shuffle of students. and, this will likely be the case for siri once she enters primary school, but doesn't need to be her initial schooling experience. she is still very young, and doesn't really need to socialize with that many kids. plus, teacher kim and her assistants can provide more directed attention to a small class of 10-12, than bigger centers where there are more students to take note. 3. the ages of the children at the school. when we first started our search, we thought it'd be great for siri to be amongst kids who are older than her, so she can learn from them. while we still do not necessarily oppose her being in school with older kids, the balance is important. the kids at growing minds (the name of the preschool) are mostly siri's age -- in the 2.5-3.5 age range -- and are developmentally similar. we took siri to visit the school this morning, and she made instant friends. of course, she became friends with the boys running around, and showed no interest in the girl who was sitting quietly playing with play doh. apparently, siri made such an impression on the boys that they asked about her at lunch today. 4. the school can enroll siri before the fall. so many of the schools we have toured will not enroll students until the fall, and we feel that siri is ready to move on from her current childcare situation. we don't think she's getting challenged enough at anna's. while we feel very comfortable leaving her there, and know that anna nurtures and takes good care of siri, that's not enough. siri had fun at circle time this morning with other kids, and listened intently to the teacher reading a book, and going over zoophonics (which seems like a cool way to learn the alphabet. i was amazed at how much the kids knew and were able to follow along). 5. security camera on the premises, organic food, small garden for the kids, outdoor space, focus on reading, incorporates art and music along side science and math, and proximity to the ocean. the kids can see the ocean from one of the rooms.
we are 99% sure that we are sending siri to growing minds. we're not sure when she would start; obviously, we have to plan on a natural transition point. but, in the mean time, here are two pictures that teacher kim just sent from our visit this morning. oh, and she takes pictures of the kids and sends them to parents periodically. who wouldn't want to see what their kids are up to at school?
