Leilani has been attending Millbrae Nursery School since July, and all of us love it. Well, I’m not sure I love being the webmaster, but that’s a totally different issue. I begin to understand the difference between webmaster and webdesigner…
Although our previous preschool, Glen Oaks Montessori was very expensive and prestigious, Leilani had cried often about not wanting to go, now it is the opposite, I have a hard time getting her home.
The playground is awesome. Indoors, additionally to the educational toys there are dolls, plastic dinosaurs and animals as well as trains; There is dressup and pretend play, free play, creative play, and after having had Leilani in a school for a year that did not have any of these makes me really appreciate the difference. Leilani loves the loft area, a special area that gets opened occasionally, they climb up on the ladder, and play with the “special” toys that are up there.
The teachers are all super nice. They know all the names of kids and family, and they work with kids socially and teach them not to only play with their friends and within their cliques, but also play with others. I am so impressed how they work with behaviorally challenged kids and integrate them within a short time, I could not believe the change in behavior I have seen in at least 2 kids within a short time.
Leilani made huge progress, her communication and conversation skills I find impressive, she shows much more empathy and is able to listen longer (unless of course we preach or lecture her…). She writes her name in upper and lower case letters, and now starts reading the regular way. She does beautiful artwork, drawing, painting, that was an area she had regressed so much in within the previous year, and I am so happy that she developed that interest again.
I was a little scared of the co-op experience at first, but it is a real community, and very enjoyable, and educational for the parents. Leilani loves my workday, then I am teacher Sonja, and I often get to do art projects with the kids, that’s a lot of fun for me almost as much as for the kids.
“Good morning Leilani, did you sleep well, did you have nice dreams?”
“No, I was so tired that even my brain fell asleep and I didn’t have any dreams”
I cleaned the fridge… on the outside.
This is one of Leilani’s earliest writings from this summer or fall. On the left she is bringing a shirt that’s still on a hanger.
How she wrote Lei a few months ago
She drew us. I think that one is newer
Raya and Leilani are dancing the Hokey Pokey and having a good time…
New flowers and hearts
She made these spirals on her own, wrote her name and the date.
That’s how the fridge looks now. These are bears to color from school. The stitching on the mouths is a direct influence from the Raggedy Ann books Leilani got for Christmas from Grandma Rosemary.
| Oh My.
Leilani has always been allowed to use my art supplies. They are much nicer than the stuff for kids. The colors are brighter, they really cover the background… it just looks better. She is a responsible kid, I mean she would not drink paint… WRONG. |
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She is a good kid, but she still sticks stuff in her mouth. Today we all sat together and played with a doodle toy that makes beautiful spirals – we used the gel writers that I use for my scrapbooks. We took turns making one mandala, all of a sudden she spat. Green. Lots of green. She had chewed on the pen and it had broken open in her mouth. |
| I washed her mouth (with toothpaste), tried to calm her down while looking for ipecac (an emetic which I found right away, points for me) while Andy researched the gel writers and called the poison control center. We were talking about hospital and emergency room and Leilani really did not want to go. Leilani proved she could make herself throw up, and first a lot of green came up. When the dinner that she had eaten just before then started to show up Andy informed us they were not very toxic… |
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