tizimatt.info

Keegan has been attending the Montessori school for a couple of months now. It has been a somewhat rough adjustment: many rules, a much stricter routine, lots of work, and trying to catch up to the other kids, beside, obviously, trying to make new friends.

The making new friends part is still an on-going process: he definitely has lots of friends (and once again, he seems popular among the girls), but he also has lots of disagreement and small fights with them. Oh well, boys, right? There are, after all, 24 kids in his class, (don’t ask me to name them all) so I am sure he will make lasting friendships. eventually.

One thing we can say, though, is that despite all the personal dramas, he is pretty happy there. And so are we: the progress he has been making is great. He started at the beginning of September not knowing how to read or write, and refusing to practice. By the end of October, his writing, while still uncertain, is almost at par with all the other kids. He is also much more willing to write, and getting faster and faster at it. This is the comparison between early September and end of October.

He also started reading…granted, simple, 1 syllabus words, but it is still reading. He brings a book home every week, and he seems more motivated at trying to read in general.

It interesting to see their method: they don’t focus on sight words at all. They went straight for reading and phonetic reading. It is “funny” to see Keegan getting frustrated at trying to pronounce words right. It does not seem to be any rules. Why wouldn’t  two OO always sound the same? Why do BLOOD and FOOD don’t rhyme? And I can totally feel his pain! Can anyone explain to me why don’t they??? He is definitely a lot better when he reads Italian, since letters always sound the same.

We also like the fact he gets to do a lot of interesting activities. He is learning computers, music, science. He has guest speakers. He already went to two field trips, to the Pumpkin Patch and the the natural History Museum. I could not be there, but a father posted some images. The kids learned about harvest and hunting and gathering in the old days. They even did some mud painting, using the symbols native American used. It looks like they had a great time.

painting ideograms

grinding acorns to make flour

If we forget the constant monetary request for this or that cause/event, we are really happy with the choice so far. We are still working on behavior, but I am glad that discipline and personal responsibility is also highly enforced at school.

Comments are off for this post

While I am not a huge Autumn fan, I have to say that September and October are wonderful months in San Diego. The weather is usually beautiful and summer-like, but all the tourists are gone. So, we get to extend our summer season another couple of months.

To take advantage of that, we went camping in the Palomar Mountain Area. It is only an hour away, but it is about 5,000 feet above sea level. The weather was beautiful, though, nice and warm. Keegan loves camping, mainly because he loves hanging out in the tent. This time we did not even try to put him to sleep early, and we all went to bed at the same time, after some s’mores. As always, convincing him to go for a hike was a challenge, so we actually had to lock him out of the truck, barefoot, to “convince” him to join us…and then he had a blast. He particularly likes climbing on rocks or trees. He insisted I took pictures.

I guess, this camping experience was slightly better than last year’s…at this rate, we will have fun camping trips by the time he is 18!

We also had his first, boys-only birthday party at the local Skate Park. We were not sure Keegan wanted to go because he is a couple of years younger than the birthday boy and does not own a scooter (yet, I may add), and he never tried the jumps at the park. We went anyway, though, and Keegan got to try someone’s else scooter and tried his first few rides. He had a lot of fun, and did better than expected.

Of course, he has been begging us for a scooter since then, on an almost daily base. So, I guess he will get one for his birthday. Being a morning party, we had a delicious donuts cake.

The nice weather also allows Keegan to unleash his hidden Picasso. He seems to enjoy drawing and coloring and painting a lot more now, especially when it comes to create his masterpieces on the driveway.

If he gets to involve an adult, it is even better.

tracing daddy’s body

the battle of the robots: daddy’s and Keegan’s

The zoo, or should I say, The World Famous San Diego Zoo as they like to call themselves, is always fun too. Last time we went, we saw a peacock mom and her babies waddling around the trails. Too cute!

Fall also means Matt’s Birthday. This year it happened on a Friday, and, lucky for us, it was also the Parents’ Night Out at the pool. We love this monthly event: it is cheaper than a sitter, and Keegan has a blast. We had the chance to have an early dinner in La Jolla: the full moon was rising, and it was spectacular.

The dinner was also pretty awesome, and we scored a free dessert, since I said it was Matt’s birthday (over his objections). But not to worry: since it is a high end restaurant, we did not have to suffer through any cheesy display or singing: just a wonderful free dessert.

After we picked up Keegan we had one more celebration at home. Once again, Matt chose ice cream for his trat, so I got some delicious mix from Cold Stone. Keegan helped placing the candles on and delivering the presents…

It was a fun celebration. Matt asked for a new record player, which are back in vogue, but with all the cool, new technological bells and whistles, like usb connectors. At least he can now play his old records, which have been sitting in boxes at least since we moved.

With Matt’s birthday over, we officially enter the Halloween time!

Comments are off for this post