celeste
i never sent my first daughter to school . she is very hurt physically we were for years on doman intensive program and i homeschooled her . when after 13 years i had another baby girl i was a bit concerned about her meeting other babies , you can understand doing doman intensively specially the physical part leaves little time for socializing .
so when tina turned 11 months i just made a flier and put it a friend educational toy shop looking for other mummies and babies to start mummy and me playgroup . we started with three babies and we grew to be 15 . after a while most of tina’s age group started school , here too they send kids very early , i felt bad she is not mixing with her age group and i put her when she turned three for only 2 days 3 hours a day in a small preschool , i didn’t want to send her away full time , i was enjoying playing and learning at home together and i didn’t want to loose that .
now this october , at 3.5 years old i decided to put her half a day in a french school and this is no more day care, it is a real school . tina was really excited , she was learning french with me at home , and she was happy to start in her new french school .
it was a terrible mistake , tina hated it , last year she would ask to go more than the 2 days , she never cried , one day she made her dad drive her to preschool on sunday so she would believe it is closed .
in this french school tina cried every morning , and i had to stay with her for hours than as soon as i see her busy the teacher would ask me to leave . one day they were strict and said i cannot stay let her cry , she will get used to it , she held her with her arms and legs and i went away crying myself . i blamed myself all morning for leaving her there and when i went to pick her up i spoke to the teacher and director and told them we are not coming back , i don’t believe she is ready . actually deep inside i wanted to tell them i don’t feel they are ready to have her . she is a very smart , articulated child , they put her in the group of 2 and three years old , but most of them speak little , even the teacher said many kids wiat till they come to school to start talking . their program was very basic , the teacher was talking to them like babies , well it was ok for others but not for tina , the toys , material are what we used with her when she was a toddler and now she says those are for my baby brother who can sit now and make a knobbed puzzle , ring stacker ,…
the classroom was a duplicate of our playroom , but without the one on one interaction she had with me , there she had no interaction with one teacher and one helper for 20 kids .
it isnot easy for me , i was hoping to get some free time to work on my hurt daughter and spend some one on one with my one year old , but not at any price . friends think it is just this year and i will put her back next year, but i could see the gap between her and her age group and next year won’t be any different . i decided to homeschool her and i am taking an online montessori teacher training course , like dad dude said , i am not really making school at home , we are just playing and having fun learning about the world around us .
remember Abraham Lincoln started school at 10
it wasn’t easy for me to take such decision specially living in a place where homeschooling is not very common like in USA , i got into many homeschooling support groups which is very helpful .
your daughter is still very young she doesn’t need to be independent at such an early age , and the best social experience a child can learn from is his family . you want her to play with other kids take her to a park , or start a playgroup like i did .
i am actually trying to organize one which will focus on art activities one afternoon every week , inspired by young at art , i have to do it in the afternoon because all her friends go to school in the morning . another afternoon i get her best friend over and they do ballet together ( we just follow a dvd ) .
another afternoon is a field trip .
another afternoon we go to the beach .
i don’t think she is missing out on socializing.
love
viv