Exploring Montessori

Mommy had planned to spend the Saturday morning going to couple of Montessori schools as they had a open day in Sydney. First stop was Hills Montessori. It's not too far from where we live, and with the commitment of couple of hours a week for the first couple of years, mommy was quite keen about the school. At a first glance it looked quite interesting. I was crawling around the classroom they have setup for the open day and took lot of interest in the things placed around the room. There were lots of treasure troves and other Montessori tools spread around the room. Mommy was having a chat with the Directress of the school to understand the steps to go through to enrol and what's involved in the early schooling.

After spending some time there, mommy decided she wanted to explore other environment for me before committing. Even though it was nearest to us, she did not feel too excited about the environment. So we drove further north to Northside Montessori. This would be bit far from our place but was worth exploring. As we entered Northside Montessori's Stepping Stone campus, we were greeted by its principal. She was a very friendly lady who explained to us the enrolment process and some of the benefits. While mommy was speaking to her, daddy took me into the psychomotor room for some play. I was quite keen on the activities in the room - and was saying hello to some of the other kids who came to explore too. The principal also pointed my parents to few other staff members who could provide us with bit more details about getting involved in a Montessori teaching method. Mommy and daddy proceeded to speak to those staff members, giving me the opportunity to doze off to a much needed sleep.

After speaking to some of the staff members, my parents were feeling much stronger about enrolling me to Northside. So mommy filled up the enrolment form and dropped it in with the principal. This means we will now proceed to a close observation session followed by an interview with the principal before making the final decision (assuming I can make through the waiting list). If I do enrol, I'd be attending school once a week till I turn 3 years. First part will involve attending psychomotor sessions until I am comfortable moving around and ready to take simple instructions - after which I can graduate to a more involved pre-school activities.

After exploring the schools, we dropped by Borders for checking some books and have coffee. While mommy and daddy had their coffee, they bought me my first babycino. I finished my babycino pretty quickly ... loved the taste. Only problem was, most of the froth was on my nose. So mommy put the rest of the babycino in my sippi cup. I forgot to mention, since mommy bought me the sippi cup with straw, I can sip my drinks straight through the straw. Which means, I no longer have to look up and pour drinks down my throat!

Later in the afternoon we were in Ninong Ronz and Ninang Wella's house for dinner. Katrina was there too so I had fun crawling behind her as she ran around. At times I was cranky which made mommy bit upset. Lately I have been vocal and at times aggressive when things didn't go my way. I'm sure mommy is putting together a comeback plan in place to rectify that.

But the best part of the day arrived when I was playing with Ninang Wella. I was on my feet and dancing with the music when she lured me to approach her. I figured she was close enough for me to just walk up to her. So I did ... one, two, three and dive. I took three steps before I dove onto her. That was a first. In case anyone had any doubt, I repeated that shortly afterwords, again with three steps. Oh, I am this close to stay on my feet and walk around. Keep tuned and you'd find out when that happens.