Thoughts on Preschool

Now that we´ve been doing the whole ¨school thing¨ for nearly two months, we´ve got some patterns established and observations that we´ve made.  

1)  Clara still enjoys school, playing with the kids, cutting and pasting, playing ¨chase¨ with anyone who will chase her, etc.  

 2)  We´ve gotten a lot of information about Diego, a boy in her class.  Apparently he had a rough transition to school, following instructions, etc.  Clara still gives us daily, unasked-for updates on Diego´s progress (or lack thereof, somedays).  For the first few weeks, Diego seemed to be her only interest in school. 

3)  Fortunately, her interests have expanded in the last month, and now we get updates on the other girls in her class.  Who played with her, who has a new backpack, who threw up in class.  You know, the things that make a four-year-old´s world turn. 

4)  I´ve been very impressed with the homework that Clara´s teacher assigns.  My only experiences with Mexican preschools have been in private schools, and the director that I had in Metepec insisted that I give the kids homework EVERY DAY.  I felt rebellious giving them homework only 4 days a week.  (Knowing in my head that it´s ridiculous to give a preschooler any homework at all.)  Clara´s teacher, being a good deal smarter than that director, only asks for homework once a week, or once every other week.  Usually it´s before a holiday, and we (the parents) are to explain said holiday to the child and they draw a picture, or cut out pictures from magazines about anything having to do with said holiday.  That´s the kind of homework I can get behind.   The piece of homework above was a reflection on the United Nations, as they celebrated the founding of the United Nations on October 24th. 

5)  The only complaint with school is that she seems to get pushed and hit a lot.  I´ve walked past the school at recess time and all the kids have recess at the same time and it´s just a giant free-for-all.  I´m guessing that most of the hitting and shoving happens simply because preschoolers don´t tend to pay attention to their surroundings, so having 100 preschoolers running amok in a fairly confined space makes for any number of accidents waiting to happen.  On a daily basis. 

However, Clara is also not quick to defend herself (to put it mildly).  So she may be a bit of a target.  Mario and I encourage her to hit back when someone hits her first.  From what she says, her teacher encourages her to retaliate, too.  (I love this woman.)  Growing up, I can´t say I ever heard in a school setting that it was OK to hit anyone, even if they hit you first.  It was always, ¨take it to the teacher, take it to the teacher, blah, blah, blah . . . ¨ (Keep in mind, I never went to preschool myself.)  So I´m really happy that this teacher wants to encourage her to stand up for herself and is actively teaching her to defend herself, instead of letting her slip into being the perpetual victim. 

A friend of mine also suggested that she learn how to pray for problem children.  So tonight when she was praying for her friends, I suggested that we pray for another little girl, who Clara said that nobody likes because she hits and pushes everybody.  After we did that, Clara mentioned that Pushy Girl is doing a lot better.  Here´s hoping that´s the case!   

6)  And finally, Clara has been recruited by the speech therapist.  She doesn´t have any noticable speech problems, but the therapist will just work with her to increase her Spanish vocabulary.  Apparently, for her assessment, they didn´t realize that she spoke English at home (strange, because her teacher sure knows), so I can just see Clara sitting before a stack of flashcards they wanted her to identify, over and over saying, ¨I don´t know, I don´t know, I don´t know.¨  Until it finally dawned on her to explain that she knew how to say all these words in English!  Poor kid.   

She is doing really well and her Spanish has improved tremendously in the last two months.  Today, I even caught her using indirect objects, direct objects and both forms of the past tense!  (Yes, Spanish has two forms--and my four-year-old is beginning to dominate that!)

Obviously school has much to do with this improvement, as does Tía Patty coming back to live with us (so Joey´s getting solid Spanish exposure, too!) or if it´s also thanks to our new-founded Dora the Explorer habit.  Even Joey yelled at the TV this evening for Mapa to come out of Dora´s backpack.  (Of course, he called it Papa.)

But in the end, we´re really happy with school and pleased in our choice of schools.   

And I still can´t get over how stinkin´ cute she is in her school uniform!