Day 3.281: Monte-story

Exile #3 was three years old - just a little older than E5N1 is now - when Exile #2 and I first came to Albany. One of our priorities in deciding whether to move here was to find a suitable way to continue her education. She was enrolled in a fantastic nursery school (state funded half-days) in the UK and we knew that state school would not be available until five here and probably then only half-days - so we went to visit some private schools with pre-school and elementary offerings to at least bridge the gap.

One of the schools we visited was a Montessori School. Montessori is an alternative education method used all over the world and we were open to loving it. In fact, we ran a mile - we foresaw in its 'work' and quiet and orderliness a stifling of our little girl's creativity and self-expression. We will never know if we were right as she went to a wonderful school which helped developed her self-confidence and love of learning in completely different ways.

After some time looking for pre-school for E5N1 however, we ended up enrolling him in Montessori. It is a small pre-school only programme and not much like the place we visited back in 2006. Also E5N1 is not much like his sister was at this age.

Today, I got the chance to visit his school with Exile #2 and Exile #4 while Exile #3 was at her gymnastics class. It was great!

Great to see him thriving and loving his 'work', great to see him putting stuff away carefully when he was done with it, great to see him interacting so wonderfully with his teacher.

So good that we only remembered about picking Exile #3 up when it was time for her class to finish a 15-20 minute drive away. Oops! Fortunately, she is becoming a very self-possessed and confident child and didn't really miss a beat as a result of my lateness.