Preschool Update

We came to a decision on the preschool situation for Kaio.  He now goes to Special Ed for the mornings, three days a week, and afternoon care at a Montessori school near my work.  Before signing off, we went and visited the Montessori school twice and Kaio really liked it.  He did not want to leave the last time we visited.  Lucky for us, they are making an exception to their typical program by letting Kaio come just in the afternoons three days a week.  So we're not going with the fancy Reggio Emelia nature school just yet.  It is a bit of a commute and a major expense.  With all the dental work I've been doing this year we need some time to recover.  So we are going to hold off until Summer time and consider the school at that point.  In the mean time, we decided to take advantage of the free county services.

I am still not convinced that Kaio needs Special Ed.  What do you mean my kid's not perfect?  No there is something wrong with the rest of the kids.  So yeah, honestly there are good days and bad days.  Like yesterday I thought he was over the top emotional and irrational.  Then today he seemed totally fine, was talking up a storm, using his imagination, and telling me about his day.  I go back and fourth on thinking that he needs intervention.

He has been attending for about a month now and loves the Special Ed class.  He keeps telling me how much he likes it and likes his teacher and friends.  He is not so ecstatic about the Montessori school, probably because he is there such a short time compared to the 23 other kids in his class.  I imagine it is tough to make friends.  Along the friends line, he has been creating lots of crafts lately for his old friends from daycare.  Last week we made and painted a wooden helicopter for Jolie, this week a race car for Mriganka, and next week a bird house for Kanak.  I can tell that he must miss them a bunch so I invited everyone to Nala's coming birthday party.  She is going to be two and wants a fish birthday cake.

The kids caught the yearly November cold and we've been house-ridden for two weeks now.  Nala got it first, then Kaio, now Mari.  Being cooped up in the house without our typical field trips to museums etc, has really gotten me worried about being able to homeschool or unschool Kaio.  I would love love love to continue teaching the kids everyday, but I'm struggling to keep Kaio engaged and focused on the concepts and activities.  He frequently strays to do his own things, which mostly includes jumping and destroying.  When I am able to break through on a certain concept, it is very powerful and he will talk about it for weeks.  Like a couple weeks ago we went to the American History Museum to the exhibit on transportation.  We looked at the life cycle of a strawberry: first they pick the strawberry in the garden, then they put it on the box, then they put it on the truck that takes it to the train, then they take it to the grocery store, then we go to the grocery store to buy it, then we put it in the blender and make a smoothly.  Of course this was even better with the real smoothy at the end.

I love it, I really love the learning and exploring.  But I'm not sure if I'm the right person to teach Kaio.  Sometimes I get so frustrated when he does not want to participate or pay attention.  I think I need to do some more research into homschooling kids like Kaio to see if it is a fit for us.  Right now I'm thinking that when he leaves the Special Ed program, I should probably keep him in a small preschool program until 1st grade, like Discovery Woods.
I think that Nala and I will do splendidly though.  :)