After dedicating a blog post to Ava's elementary school, it only seems fitting that we do the same for James's school. Like Ava did in her younger days, James attends ChildRoots Center for Young Children. It's a hippie-dippie school that shuns plastic toys and embraces wooden objects as "invitations to play." "Character" books and clothing are strictly forbidden--a convenient rule that has gotten us out of buying many a Disney princess dress for Ava, and one I hope will prove as useful in avoiding Marvel-comic-themed tees for James. They have no Cozy Coupes in the play yard, nor swings, nor jungle gyms. Instead they have bark chips, scooping tools, empty milk crates, planks of wood, paint, and chalk.
While most of the day is free-wheelin', James's class is moving into a few structured activities to prepare them for their transition to preschool next year. One of those is "circle time," in which the primary care providers (the lovely Ashley and Brittany) prompt the kids (or "friends", as they call them) with a question each day. Lately the class has been laser focused on muffins so this has lead to a month-long exploration of baking--each day they bring in a new ingredient and have the kids investigate and reflect on its properties. But James has been laser focused on muffins his whole life ("I'm your muffin, mama?" he asks me each day) so he started off the unit boasting an unexpected level of expertise:
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| Nailed it |
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| Attaboy |
ChildRoots is a self-proclaimed arts and science school so they have a unique introduction to arts through the younger years. The friends don't even get to lay eyes on traditional art materials until year three; the first two years are dedicated to introducing--in a very orderly fashion--dry and, later, wet materials for the kids to experience during sensory time. Bit by bit they advance to their first art material, blue paint, at which time they strip the kids down to their 'roos and present them with a group canvas to have at it. After three years of waiting, James was less than impressed and opted to watch the other kids go all tribal while he stood to one side and kept himself prim, proper, and unpainted. He'll stick with his books and puzzles, thank you very much.
