School Visit

Yesterday we visited the school that the girls will be going to next year (since it was Tuesday, we skipped Swedish School). The visit went good. The girls knew one girl who was there and played some with her, which is always nice. It started of a little rough though. We went to the library before hand and were a little stressed to get there (darn toilet breaks). The invite said to be there "before 2.15, because we will be starting promptly at 2.15." So we ran to the school and managed to get there just in time. Needless to say, nothing started until 2.30. With a school that starts at 7.45, you would think that they would want to stress promptness.

We got to visit all three kindergarten classes and we got three very different impressions. The first class was the worse impression of the three. In fact, it was really bad. The class itself had no feeling in it. When you walk in some classes you think to yourself, "god, I wish I would have had this class when I was in school." That is not the feeling that I got. It felt more like the majority of classes I had in grade school in Texas (not a compliment, I promise). That was not the worse part. The teacher went up to the girls when we first got there and started to talk to them (good). Then she asked they wanted to play and listed off the things that they could play- "You can play house or dollies or princess dress up...oh and there are blocks in the back corner." Then she made comments about the mom being stay at home. I really do not want this class and I am not really sure what to do about it.

The third class that we went to was nice. The teacher focuses on art a lot. All year they look at different artists and try to copy them, which I really liked. Then at the end of the year they have a art exhibit. It is not at an art museum, like it was at one of the private schools we looked at, but it is at an external location and the community is invited to attend. The teachers were really nice and N seemed to like these teachers the best.

The second class was by far my favorite. This was the class that when I walked into the classroom I thought, "I wish this was my class when I was a kid!" They were studying dinosaurs and the whole room looked like they were in dinoland. They had an incubator where they were hatching chicken eggs and had live animals all over the room. the teacher pointed out all the different things as well, but never directed the girls to the "girl toys", but did a selection. Next year's theme is the rain forest, so the room with look like a rain forest. Plus, the teacher said that they go to the local lake all the time. They also do the art exhibit, but it is not as big focus as in the other classroom. This is the class that I want my girls to be in. I am even tempted to put them into the same class.

Here is a good question, what do the girls think? No idea. The only thing that they have said is that N thinks that it is too close to the house. Hmm, we will see if she thinks that when the schools start at 7.45. Partly I think that it is too long away for them to really get it. I know that they will be excited once school starts. Still wish we would have gotten into the Spanish School, but if we get class #2, I will be happy.