Part of the philosophy behind the kids' pre-school is that once a year parents are invited to observe them in school during a regular day for about 45 minutes. The kids were incredibly excited to show off what they were doing and at times weren't able to separate themselves to do individual work. Max started working on a United States puzzle and was asking me what different states were. He was pleased to notice that Florida (where Boppy is working and where we had just visited in February) and California were both colored pink on the map. When Daniel saw them, he announced, "Well, that's why the plane ride took so long! Look how far apart they are!"
Daniel was showing off his numerals and counters, showing that he recognizes his digits and can count.
Caroline worked with maps of Europe, matching the two sides to each other.
One of the things I specifically remember from my time at Montessori was learning to lace shoes and do buttons. The third of these tasks is the "buckling frame", which Max tackled next.
Daniel moved on to Color Box 3, matching colors, but it is a project that takes a long time and he wanted to show off other things during my brief visit, so he put it back and rolled up his mat (this is the most amazing - and frustrating - part of watching them. They are perfectly happy to put everything back where it goes at school, while at home their toys are everywhere.)
Both Max and Daniel migrated to a table to do "metal insets" - a task that involves tracing both inside and outside a shape and then drawing stripes inside the shape. What is interesting in these pictures is that the boys - who have been going back and forth on which hand they use to write with all year - are using both hands here too. Max, who has mostly decided to be a righty, traced inside the shape with his left hand, then outside with his right. Daniel, who has settled in to being a lefty, traced inside the shape with his right hand, then switched over.
Toward the end of my time there, the kids decided to team up on things.
I got hugs and kisses at the end of the visit and then they bopped off to do some more "hard work".
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