School (Virtual) Tour

Daniel is attending Little Lambs Montessori School (http://llmontessorischool.com/) and I have been extremely impressed so far. I  still wish I didn't have to leave him but this seems to be a fine place. I had done a lot of research about the Montessori method and I really do think that the idea of child-directed learning with gentle structure is an excellent way to go.

The school itself is in a converted house. From the entryway, you can turn right into the moovers (children who aren't infants but also not old enough for the toddler class), or head upstairs to the preschool (determined by readiness but generally 3, 4 and 5 year olds), or head left into the toddler room. The infant room is thru a doorway off the back of the toddler class. There are no shut doors (only gates) and I love that at any given time you can hear someone calling for story time with friends or singing songs or whatever else is going on.

The infant room has cribs in the back (one crib per kid - Daniel doesn't ever have to share and always has the same bed) and general class area in the front. Can't believe I forgot to take a pic of the crib area but here's Daniel asleep at pickup the other day.

In the mornings, we arrive around 7:20 and sit down on the "learning foam" so that he can eat one more time before I leave. These foam forms are lined up along the wall in the mornings but tend to be all over the place by the time I pick him up. I loved that they are brightly colored and a safe place for the littles to learn to crawl and play (excuse my crap in the picture).

In the middle of the carpet area is the big foam circle that I've found Daniel enjoying at pickup. He and Warner (the youngest baby - only 6 weeks!!) apparently enjoy morning foam circle time. They'll be foot to foot and just look at each other.

Behind the carpet area is a tile area where floor chairs sit (upper left of the pic) for meals and story time. There's also the diaper changing station and shelves with bins for each kid. The bottom shelves contaiin a few toys that the littles are allowed to help themselves to (if they get that far!) Everyone has clothes, diaper changing stuff, and food/bottle items. Everything is kept carefully labeled and organized. The school is amazing about using whatever diapers, wipes, diaper cream, etc that you want (except for cloth diapers).

Another amazing thing about Little Lambs is that they will feed whatever you send. They were one of the few schools I found that actually prefers that your child have breast milk - citing the health benefits.There's a fridge in the classroom and a bottle warming station and all of the teachers have been trained to properly handle/defrost/feed breast milk. The kids are held in one of these chairs to eat and Daniel has apparently been buzzing at the Owl. Again the shelves have toys that are always up for grabs.

The final awesome thing is that every day when I drop Daniel off, I fill out a little slip that has his name and info. Then you record last meal and how much he ate (or how long he nursed), last diaper change and what he did, and how he slept. Then during the day, the teachers log eating times and amount, diaper changes and naps. There's also a place on the sheet where I can leave a note or they can write me one - we've had "great day" and "sleepy today" and "lots of hiccups" and "bring more diapers" ... LOL. It's very reassuring to know what he's been up to. This is a dark pic but you get the idea.