Kindergarten!

It's amazing how the timeline of my life is now measured by my kids.  Preschool, kinder, middle school, high school, etc!  This year, J and V started kindergarten and life is changing!  From here on out, school will be a huge part of our lives.

I'm very excited that J and V are going to a really cool charter school in our neighborhood.  The neighborhood public school is only three blocks away, it's highly rated, and people really like it.  However, it's still mired in the red tape, monotony, politics, large class sizes, "old dogs can't learn new tricks," and testing that the public school system here is trapped in.  The charter is really awesome - small class sizes, teachers aids in the room. and a philosophy of child-led learning, project based learning, and more attention to the social and behavioral aspects of growing up.

An example of their social/behavioral learning is their training in conflict management.  In the public schools here, my neighbor's kindergartner told me this week that this is how it works:  if she's good she gets a green sticker.  If she gets only green stickers all week she gets to choose a prize from the treasure chest.  If not, she doesn't.  (I'm sure the prize is a crappy plastic toy.)

At Innovations Academy, if someone does something "bad," the teacher talks to them to find out what's going on.  So, for instance, if my neighbor's kid is bad, say she pushes someone on the playground, she doesn't get a prize.  If J or V push someone on the playground, a teacher talks to both kids together, gives them each a chance to talk, and tries to find out why the child pushed.  Then the "victim" tells the "perp" what they need in order for everything to be ok (like a hug or an apology).  the idea is getting to the heart of the issue, and teaching the kids how to resolve conflict.

An example of the project based learning: instead of the kids learning to write by tracing letters, or learning math by doing sheet after sheet of problems, they learn much more organically.  The kinder class last year decided (themselves) that they wanted to study fantasy.  So each kid chose a fantasy they liked.  My friend's kid picked the tooth fairy.  For a few weeks the kids did all their lessons based on the fantasy they chose.  Saul did a survey of whether people believed in the tooth fairy.  He drew a pie chart, drew pictures, did a presentation about it, and more.  In the meantime, he practiced writing, learned math concepts, etc.  It's learning by doing, in a very meaningful way.

My kids haven't been in the public school system so I don't know exactly how things work there (I'm making some assumptions based on what I've heard.)  But I understand the teachers also do a lot of teaching to the test.  Not only does IA not do that, they have a "no unnecessary homework" rule.

Anyway, I'm excited about it!  Maybe not doing the best job describing it.  But so far J and V love it!