Life on the Road Less Traveled: Rose Starts School

I was very lucky to be able to delay the start of institutionalized care for Rose until 7 months. The thought of dropping off a 6-week-old, such a tiny, innocent piece of precious cargo, to strangers, was frightening. I know people do it and I would have done it too if I had to, but I am so grateful for my professional and personal support systems for allowing me to enroll Rose in school when I felt she would be ready. Now that she is somewhat mobile, very sociable and extremely interactive, I feel comfortable bringing her to a place where she can more fully develop with instruction and socialization. Being an experienced mom for 7 months and with the benefit of hindsight, I would have been comfortable taking her to school at 6 months, or maybe even 5 months, but not before that time. I guess this opinion stems from a belief that you have to be a little tough to make it in a setting with 3 other kids competing for attention and I didn't think Rose could hold her own before 5 months.

After talking to some friends and researching the day care/infant school options in the area, Colin and I decided to check out 6 schools. Four were in a similar price range and two were much more expensive. We didn't plan on enrolling Rose in the more expensive schools, but we wanted to see how they compared to the schools that were middle-of-the-road in pricing. Neither of the expensive schools showed they were worth the significantly higher cost. Of the four schools that interested us, two came recommended by my soccer teammates, one was recommended by several people we knew in various capacities, and the fourth was a school I found doing research online. All of the schools shared details about their curriculum and their safety protocols. And they each tried to "sell" us on what made their school unique, or better than the others.

We ruled out the first school pretty quickly because of the institutional feel of it. And we ruled out the third one we saw when they said they would not handle cloth diapers. That left us debating between the school that came recommended by several and the school I found doing my own research. The recommended school seemed to have a strong focus on the curriculum and they were willing to work with us on learning how to use cloth diapers. The school I found had a very cozy and comfortable feel to it, had experience using cloth diapers, and seemed to focus on healthy living and healthy eating. I guess this description makes it out to be a "hippy school" but they also have a solid curriculum with music, language, arts, etc. We ultimately decided to go with this hippy school, which sold us on their experience with cloth diapers, providing snacks from Whole Foods, backyard gardening, and composting with the kids as part of their learning experience.

Before Rose started full time, she had a trial-run "free day." We dropped her off a little after 9am and picked her up around 3:30pm. It was good to practice preparing for school and to get orientation to the check-in and check-out process. Unfortunately, the drop off experience was a bit of a disaster. When we arrived, there were already 8 kids in the class, so a third teacher had to come in to maintain the 4:1 ratio. A couple of the kids were crying and it seemed a bit chaotic. I'm sure it didn't help that one of the teachers had to step away from the kids to greet us and show us around. To make matters worse, as we were getting ready to leave, Rose lost her balance while standing holding a bar, fell on her face, and proceeded to cry. Leaving the school that morning I started running various scenarios through my head on how we could keep her out of day care a little longer. Three-thirty could not come fast enough. Thankfully, we walked in to a smaller group of kids sitting around the teacher as she was reading a book. Rose didn't even care that we were there, she was enjoying herself with the other kids! If the pick-up did not go so well, I'm not sure what we would have done.

We have now completed two days of school and have three left this week. On Monday, Rose seemed interested in her new environment and we had no problems dropping her off. The class environment was calm the whole time we were there. The pick-up process was similarly easy. Rose was actually the last to be picked up and we walked in to Rose being rocked in the chair by the teacher. Tuesday's drop-off was a little more difficult. The little girl that cried during the morning of Rose's trial visit was crying again when we walked in. All the other children were sitting quietly around the teacher. One look at the group (and maybe because of the crying girl), and Rose was also in tears. The teacher was quick to offer her comfort and include her in the activities of the morning, which quickly calmed her. By the time I walked out, she wasn't interested in whether or not I was there. Pick-up was again very easy since there were still two teachers in the class and Rose was only one of two children left. She was sitting with the teacher on the floor, drinking her milk. The teachers both gave glowing reports of Rose's day - I think taking a 1.5 hour nap definitely helped!

While some schools have cameras in the class so parents could watch their children, this school does not. Instead, they have an electronic program where each child's daily progress and activity reports are entered throughout the day. We can look to see when Rose is napping, when she's eating, and sometimes we get a photo summary of something she did during the day. I like that it keeps us connected to her day and it's very helpful in showing me the patterns that may be developing in her schedule. I also don't have to take time from the teachers to find out when she last ate and was changed when I pick her up.

I do hope Rose enjoys going to school and that she learns many of the good behaviors that are modeled by the other children (and not the bad ones!). I'm overdue for her 7 month update, but I'll share in this post that she is very close to crawling and is pretty good at holding herself up on furniture. She is also a big talker. Stay tuned for a more thorough update on her progress. For now, I'll leave you with some pictures of Miss Rose's first experience with school.