Month: June 2009

Leilani sometimes does not know an English term, pantyhose is one of them. She always calls them “Strumpfhosen”, [shtroomp-f-hosen] (strumpf=stocking and hosen=pants) which is the correct German term. She asked one of her teachers for one (it’s often cold), and was not able to describe what she meant. The teacher walked over to a little boy who speaks German as well, and repeated what she understood Leilani had said – it came out as “Strom-Haus” [shtrom-hows] (strom=(electrical )current haus=house). The little boy explained it was an electrical house, on a cord (which is a good guess for a 5 yo, an adult would probably have guessed a transformer substation or power plant). The teacher was even more confused.

When I came to pick up Leilani I was able to explain the difference, and had to pronounce each word a few times until she really heard the difference (Leilani did not hear the conversation).

Later I told the whole story to Andy and Leilani listened – Andy did not know what a “Strom-Haus” was, so Leilani helped him: “It is a gasoline house!”

Leilani had her new friend Seyon over, and she was doing a puzzle and he and I played a number game – recognize the number on a little tray and count the correct number of marbles onto it. He did really well up to 7, recognized 8 and then decided that was too much work. Leilani looked up from her puzzle briefly, and said: “Just find the black ball in there. It has the number 8 on it, put it on that tray, then you don’t have to count.” I was speechless, for one thing that she was completely listening and doing the puzzle – multitasking is not something preschoolers do well – and even more so because of the train of thought.

6/8/2009

6/9/2009

me

6/12/2009

I saw that 2 of you recommended Montessori schools – I had my daughter in 2 different Montessori schools the past 2 years, and I could not recommend it any less. She will be attending Millbrae nursery school next year, which is more play based, so probably not right for you either.

6/13/2009

6/13/2009

“Montessori is not a registered term – anyone can call anything Montessori, no matter how little it had to do with the original idea of Dr Maria Montessori. The ones sticking strictly to “real Montessori approach” ignore the past 100 or so years of research.”

6/13/2009

My oldest son had some delays and we had a horrible experience with Montessori. We are having a fabulous experience with Calvary. My middle son just finished his kindergarten year and was very well prepared for elementary school with 2 years at Calvary under his belt, not only academically, but socially, as well. It is play-based and may not look as structured as some other programs, but all of the teachers are fantastic and well trained in providing a developmentally appropriate program. They are also very experienced in working with children with special needs/IEPs. Good luck!

There were a few situations when Leilani was talking about her school just as I was talking about my place of work (while working for cooperate america or pulling viruses of a client’s PC) or a high school student in the middle of a stressful test preparation – and most school days when Leilani asked her morning question: “Where are we going to go today?” (Monday Wednesday and Friday she went to school) she was  then trying to convince me to stay home (“I’ll play nicely in my room and let you work”) or go someplace else with her. Somedays she loved her school, and certainly she loves her friends and teachers, but I think the negatives weigh much heavier.

Photos by Sonja, comments by Andy.

May 30: Another weekend day down “south” (around San Jose) to enjoy the warm weather. I think we’d be reluctant to admit it, but it’s too cold in San Bruno for us. Even when the sun shines, the wind blows over the hills from the ocean and it is chilly most of the day. So we often find ourselves driving 20-30 miles south for the day, where it usually stays warm as long as the sun is up.

Rancho San Antonio park has a farm with some animals for the children to see, after a 1 mile walk, so it’s always a good destination. This time we discovered it also has a creek to play in:

The goats had 1-week old kids:

The way children interact is fun to watch. A lot of children end up around the animal pens. The first children Leilani saw, she ran up to them and said “Hi, my name is Leilani, do you want to play?” They completely ignored her, pretended she didn’t even exist. I told Leilani the children were busy with their own games and that she should try to be not so straightforward and more engaging.

The second time Leilani tried to make friends, she and another girl were stalking the farm cat. I thought this had a chance of succeeding, the two girl were showing a common interest. Then they got upset about who saw the cat first and how that might give some privilege. Then the girl picked up the cat as if it were hers and walked back to her family who were sitting in the shade. It was so surreal that I understand how Leilani didn’t really know how to react.

The third time was a charm, literally. Both were held up by their parents to see the goats, and started a conversation that first was all about counting the goats, and then Leilani started to clown around and they made each other laugh. Soon they were running around and Leilani wanted to race with him. Then they climbed on some stumps and jumped around, then they both wanted to see inside the barn:

They they found some real common ground, making faces:

It turns out that Seyon and his family are like us: we both moved to the Bay Area recently, and lived in Europe before that.

He had ridden his bike to the farm, but walked all the way back with Leilani, playing tag, scaring each other with monster noises, and dragging on the daddy:

Leilani showed him her two favorite trees. The hollow hobbit tree:

And the fairy house tree ring (of California bay trees that smell so good) where they played house and danced together:

BUBBLE BATH!

Look what I bought at the Asian Image…

Wow… that’s nice… do you think it’s good quality?

(it somehow reminded me of a tortoise)

Tiger gets a haircut (fortunately just a pretend one, and hopefully not a trend…)

Leilani wrote a letter to Santa Claus… well she dictated one: “Dear Santa Claus, please bring me a light-up Rudolph with brown dots and a little bit of red for the nose. Thanks You, Leilani” She drew a picture of it so Santa knows exactly how it should look. I really hope Santa does not forget, it’s a long time until Christmas…

Andy adds: …and a long time since last Christmas when she saw the light-up reindeer lawn decorations, I’m surprised she remembers.

Where have you seen this photo before?

Answer: At the top of the blog and with Stitch.