Today marks one month since Javi started full-time at a Montessori school. It’s been great! Overall, He’s happy to go to school. Because we live so far away (it’s the same school where I work), we debated whether or not sending him there was the right decision. It meant a lot of changes from his previous routine: I started driving him rather than Sean, he had to change his wakeup time from 8AM to 6AM, he changed from 3 days a week to 5 days a week, he changed from getting home around 4PM to getting home around 5:30. So many changes for my little 2 year old. But he’s thriving and loving it.

Changes I’ve noticed since starting Montessori school:

– His language is exploding. Montessori says that will happen, but it’s amazing to see and listen to. He shocks me every day with words I didn’t know he knew.

– He’s gaining independence in every part of his day. From zippers, to light switches, to carrying his things and grabbing a snack — he wants to do it all and he doesn’t want help (until he does and then he ASKS). His favorite phrase in this situation is “I got it. I got it.”

– He’s becoming helpful. Every time Sean or I mention the word “help” in reference to each other, Javi comes running from wherever he is yelling “I help! I help!”. For instance, the other day I couldn’t reach down over my pregnant belly to take off my boots so I asked Sean to pull them off for me. Javi insisted he do it. 🙂

– He’s becoming aware of his environment. From putting his shoes away, to emptying his lunch containers, to hanging up his coat and placing laundry in the laundry basket — he’s observant, knows where things belong and does his very best to make sure things get to where they’re suppose to be.

– He’s absorbing everything from school and bringing it home. From wanting to (hm, demanding that he) drink out of a real water glass, to telling us the correct colors and body parts, to singing his favorite songs (“Row, row, row your boat” and “The wheels on the bus”), to telling us all about his classmates and his day — everything gets relayed (in his own 2 year old way).

Things about his Montessori school experience that I love:

– He gets to play with children older, younger and his same age. While sometimes this presents a problem, like when he plays with much older children at recess and tries to “keep up” with them; overall it’s wonderful to see him interact with so many different children.

– His class size is small (8 children) and he has 2 teachers.

– He has time outside for playing, inside the classroom for work, circle time that includes music and movement, and food tastings of fruits and veggies every day along with snack.

– He participates in so many “specials” — he gets to go to the gym once a week, the library for story time, cooking class on Tuesdays; he visits the greenhouse and soon he’ll start nature walks.

Here are some photos from his time at school:

I hope your child’s school year is off to a great start!