The Blue Room

Charlotte ended her first year of preschool in St. Louis at the end of May (yes it is July, I know). I have always been a big advocate for public schools. Now to be clear I am not anti- private schools or anti home school or christian or charter or boarding or beauty schools... I'm not anti any sub-group of schools. I'm just anti-schools that aren't working, and I have always felt that more public schools are working than people give them credit. BUT all this was prior to having children, and it is much easier to stand on a soap box when you don't have two children up there with you. I often wondered if that would change when I had my own. You know kind of a "put your money where your mouth is" type of situation. Only "putting your kid" is sometimes harder than your money. So when Jake and I were looking for preschools, I knew we needed to try the local public pre-school. WOW. They were amazing. A.M.A.Z.I.N.G.

So here is a little pre-test, post-test for those teachers out there:
This is her self portrait on 8/24/2009 (first day of school). Umm yeah, ok... And then self-portrait on 5/25/2010 (last day of school). What in the world! You don't have to be a teacher to get that this is pure brilliance! And look at that pretty name, the earrings, I bet she even has 32 teeth... so proud!

Clearly this self-portrait was so amazing that we felt she was ready for medical school immediately.


Every art project she came home with looked like a 4 year old did it. Such an amazing experience to have teachers that understand the importance of letting the child make their own project. Instead of getting a cute little arts and crafts snowman that a teacher had spent a day and a half preparing, so that Charlotte could fold it and call it hers... I got trash that she had found, glued together and call it her "treasure". It was messy, it didn't make sense, it didn't look like anything recognizable by anyone over the age of 6, but it is HERS!! She cut it, she glued it, she painted it, she created it... it fell apart and oozed all over our car. AND WE LOVED IT.
Important people to note: these are 2 of Charlotte's best friends. Of particular importance would be the sweet little girl whose is pretending to be a mouse. Here is why:

There are two reasons why our little sister is not named Mabel.
1. because everyone but myself hated that name. (I still love it) and
2. because Charlotte loved her silly little friend so much that she wanted to name her sister Claire.

And of huge importance, her fabulous teachers. Who gave her great building blocks for the rest of her education. Thank you for letting me continue to stand proud on my soap box.

But as much as we loved school, we also love summer...and that's worth doing a dance out of the building on your last day.