First School Camp

I wonder what Aaron is doing? Did he like his lunch? Did he get room mates that were close friends? Will he know how to keep his stuff organised? Has he thought of me? Or any other member of his family?

Aaron left for a 3 day/2 night school camp this morning. They've gone to the Ewan Maddock Dam, about an hour from Brisbane. Although he transitioned to this class in time for last year's camp, he wasn't ready and didn't go. This year, while I wouldn't say that he has been excited about it, he has been planning for it. We got the packing list a few weeks ago and he was keen to get everything we needed. He started packing his bags last Friday night and was constantly reviewing the checklist. Occasionally, he'd give me a little hint of what worried him but they were all issues that were easily resolved. Things like "What if they don't have rice?" and "What if I can't dry my hair properly?" 

There was no drama or last minute panic this morning. In fact, it was very much like any other school day at home in the morning. We got there at the usual time and after dropping off their bags in front of the bus, the kids went to their classrooms as normal. The teachers tried to tell us that its better if we left so that the children didn't have last minute change of hearts and also so that the children whose parents weren't around, wouldn't feel sad about it. BUT, there were quite a few parents hanging around so, we stayed too. 

Aaron gave us a few enthusiastic waves good bye as the bus pulled away but other than that, he never even looked at us. 

The teachers all had very anxious looks on their faces as they got the children ready. I would too if I had to be responsible for a group of 6-9 year olds over two nights! They were all assigned places on the bus so there was no squabbling over who sat where. I think its going to be the same with the rooms too.

Aaron's class was on the second bus. You can see them in the photo below, watching, as the first bus pulled away. Richard took the photo while I was under the trees in the background of the photo. Some of their little faces looked very serious. I think they suddenly realized that they really were going to go away and there was no turning back now.

Meanwhile, the group of mothers I was standing with were full of mixed feelings. All their 'little babies' going off to be without them for three days. I remember thinking that one day I'll be waving him off at an airport and he'll be gone for much longer than 2 nights.

I don't exactly miss Aaron or worry about him because I trust the teachers. I do wonder if he feels as insecure as I did when I went on my first school camp when I was 11 years old. Maybe going when you're younger means that you have less expectations of yourself and others and don't know how to feel insecure yet. Hopefully, he'll remember enough of what happened so I can get a good idea of what he got up to. 

Spy-O-Scope

We're only at the start of autumn over here so the weather in 'sunny' Queensland is still warm on most days. There have been a few sunny days this week but we've also had thunderstorms in the evenings. Today was one of those sunny days but we chose to get frozen in an ice skating rink instead.

I was alone with the two boys in the rink and was worried that I would have to deal with two whiny brats that wanted to go home because they couldn't get the hang of it. My mother came along as backup in case I had to hand one off to her to sit down.

Aaron did very well and was soon skate/walking along without holding on to the sides. Adrian had a frame that he pushed along and he was doing ok too except that he wanted to sit down and have a snack after every loop around. Eventually, he just sat out and spied on us through his Spy-O-Scope. (I asked if it was a telescope and he said "No, its a Spy-O-Scope").

I had a very enjoyable afternoon with the two of them and hopefully, we'll get to go back again soon.

Things We Get Up To During The Holidays

Aaron has been on school holidays this week. This means that I've been on holidays too. I've been sleeping in past 8am on a few mornings, letting the house get messier than usual and we've been having some junky meals. I had plans to take them to the beach but we have had showers every days and it looks like thats going to continue until the end of the holidays.

Aaron's first priority was to get to the library. That was easily done and he has an entire shelf full of 'new' books to read. So, he's more than happy to stay at home. He's not a bookworm for the whole day and the rest of the time, he and Adrian are making lots of noise. Yesterday, they wanted to be pirates and I got a whole day of  'Aaaargh me hearties!' and other similar phrases that they imagined pirates would use. Adrian is a superhero pirate with a cape.

His other request was to go to Orleigh Park in West End and thats where we were this morning. Its a great park with giant sized bugs, worms, frogs and something that looks a little like an eggplant.

So other than the trip to the library and the park, we've been home for a lot of the time. Aaron has also been helping out a lot around the house. Yesterday, he hung up the entire load of laundry, by himself. I was definitely impressed. Today, he helped my father clean up some sugar cane.

I hope we wake up and see some sunshine tomorrow. Then maybe we can try to make it to the beach.

Balloon Twisting

This Easter long weekend has turned out to be very enjoyable for everybody. We took Aaron and Adrian to to the Festival of Sails on Friday. This was a sort of carnival that coincides with the Brisbane to Gladstone yacht race. There were countless market stalls there and plenty of activities and rides for the children. On top of all that, it was held by the beach!

I thought the beach would have been the winner but surprisingly, it was this balloon twisting station that caught Aaron's attention. This man was incredible. He could make anything that the children asked for - ninja turtles, butterflies, something called 'Yoshi', anything. Best of all, the council must have paid this guy because we didn't need to pay for any of it. 

Aaron asked for a ninja. 

Three year olds are sometimes hard to please. Adrian asked for a knight's sword and the guy must have thought it was too easy so he decided he'd make this huge one. Size isn't everything and Adrian was not impressed with this huge sword. He couldn't wield it and there was no convincing him that it was easier to fight dragons from a distance. In the end, we had to dismantle it (out of sight of the balloon guy) and he waved the hilt around instead. 

 Aaron was more than happy with his ninja and wanted to participate in the 60 minute workshop on how to twist your own balloons.

Look what he made. The other little boy is one of Aaron's classmates. Richard (seen in the red cap above) was on hand to help the kids out but they did a lot of the work themselves. Aaron even made that yellow sword for Adrian - a very suitably sized one!

I've Had Enough of Half Sized Finger Nails

Aaron has the horrible habit of chewing his nails. It all started when he got the hand, foot, mouth disease nearly three years ago. I have tried sticking bits of tape on his nails, gloves and also the bitter nail polish that is non toxic. In fact, he even chewed his toe nails. Can you imagine that?? That was thankfully short lived. Phew!

I remember that I chewed my nails when I was his age too. Each time that I saw the white bit growing, I had to bite, and tear. It hurt and often bled but I don't remember my mother nagging me to stop but I grew out of the habit by the time I was around ten. Unfortunately, I have no idea how I kicked that habit.

There is a two week break coming up and I think I need to take some drastic action here. I can't wait for Aaron to grow out of it on his own because he might not. There are many ideas out there but many are geared towards adults that have little more will power. So far, I have three new ideas.

1) I put some colored nail polish on his nails. Supposedly this works with girls because they want to keep it looking nice. BUT, he might end up eating a lot of toxic paint.

2) I file some fake nails down and stick them on him. These are completely new to me and I have no idea how it works so, I'd need to do some experimenting here.

3) This is my most drastic strategy. We grow chillis in the garden and maybe I should rub a bit on all his finger tips. It will feel hot for a long time and he'll definitely not want to taste it more than once. The big downside here is that he may rub his eyes. So, this is probably an idea the I shouldn't carry out....even if I think its the most effective. 

So, are there any nail biters out there with some useful tips for children?

Dominoes

We have been having some fun with dominoes this weekend. Just between us, I thought that buying 100 dominoes was going to be heaps but it turned out to be a really small pack. I think we'll need 1000 to do anything remotely impressive. When I presented it to Aaron and Adrian, I really played up ONE HUNDRED. Thats a huge number when you're six.

I'll need to get more because I didn't get to build anything.

It Takes A WILD Imagination

Its been a day of ups and downs. I'll write about the 'ups' today because they were hilarious. The 'downs' can wait for another day - or maybe never.

Take a look at this photo and tell me what you think he is dressed up as. Don't think of anything obvious....

You guessed that he was a 'knight' right? Isn't it obvious? The helmet, visor, chain mail gloves and sword!

I was asked to call him Sir Dragon but I told him that a more appropriate name for him would be Sir Talkalot. 

And now, here is Adrian's imagination at work. It isn't the best photo but focus on the backpack and the gas mask.

Do you see a scuba diver? We didn't get it for awhile even though he was saying that he was going under water. The mask was initially separate and it was Aaron that made the connection and used a belt to tie the mask to the backpack. 

These two episodes had me laughing long and hard! And it made me feel good that they have this crazy imagination. 

Mini 'Olympics'

We have been enjoying watching the Olympics as a family. My strict TV watching schedules have been thrown out the window for these 17 days and we have a new Olympics season only habit of watching TV after dinner and staying up past the usual bed time. I'm probably setting myself up for some protests after the Olympics come to a close but I'll deal with that when the time comes.

The school has had two days of their own 'Olympics' too. Yesterday was for the under 6s so I took Adrian along. His class of toddlers were representing Australia so they were all in yellow. There was a parade of the athletes (and their parents), an opening speech, the athletes oath and even an official opening by the Queen. 

Today, it was Aaron's turn. It was a long day in the sun for Adrian and me! The teachers were extremely hardworking and planned out a full day of sports fun for the children. It was well organised with all children have several turns at all the events.

I don't know if this is in keeping with some Montessori philosophy or not but competition was clearly not emphasized. It was all about participation and there were no winners. This was good if you think about all the disappointed, crying or sore loser children that the teachers didn't have to deal with but I do think that the kids need some sort of an introduction to competition so they can start learning to deal with it now. 

Its Friday tomorrow and I have one final, full day for this week. I really need the weekend!

Iron Man Teeth

Aaron is almost back to normal today. On Friday, he ended up having one filling, one pulpotomy and one tooth extracted. Those were all expected. The mini surprise was that the second pulpotomy was not needed after all.

Here he is right before we went into the operating theater. He had spent the morning reading a good book and as we were waiting in this holding area, they put on a video for him. So he was happy. And excited!

What I would have liked to have taken photos of was the operating theater - so many machines and big lights about. I remember thinking to myself how great it would be if they would all just stop and let me get a few photos for Aaron to look at afterwards. But of course, I wasn't silly enough to do something like that - its just these phones with cameras in them that tempt me all the time I was only in there to hold his hand until the General Anesthetic took effect and then they ushered me out and I had two absolutely quite hours to myself. Apart from them calling every 30 mins to let me know what they were doing, I was uninterrupted the entire time and, I'm not ashamed to admit it, I welcomed and enjoyed that time.

He wasn't quite so happy when he came out. In fact, he was miserable from both the after effects of the G.A. as well as the work that was done in his mouth. We stayed another 90 minutes in the hospital before going home. He was tired and slept the rest of the day and still had an early night. Since then, he's been enjoying an incredible amount of pampering from me.

When he finally remembered to look in the mirror, he got quite upset. "I don't look nice anymore" has been repeated many times this weekend. The crown he has is stainless steel and so is the spacer. The crown is on the bottom left so when he smiles, it is visible but its going to be something we all have to get used to. I'm trying to tell him its Iron Man Teeth but that doesn't mean anything to him because he's not into Iron Man. Hopefully he'll get used to the way he looks soon because he's been trying not to open his mouth when he smiles and speaks.

FIFO Teeth

We've had a totally unexpected event today. The story according to Aaron is that he was tearing up some paper and he accidentally hit himself in the mouth and his tooth came flying out and landed on the floor. We've been focusing all our attention on that molar of his that I didn't notice that this tooth was wobbly - and he never said anything.

I dug through my archives to find a photo of the first tooth into his mouth and its the same one! I didn't know they followed the FIFO rules? He also cut two teeth at almost the same time (you can see the second one vaguely in the photo below) so does that mean that he's about to lose that neighboring tooth too? By next week he could be short of three teeth. EEK!

His friends have been talking about the tooth fairy. And the other day, I found out that a tooth is worth anything from $2 to $5. The tooth fairy never visited me so when he asked me if anything was going to happen tonight I told it to him straight "The tooth fairy doesn't visit us." He made a little snorting sound at that answer and said that he knew it wasn't real and that parents were doing it. AND, that he didn't expect me to. Phew! (Parents, don't worry, I told him not to tell the other kids. Just in case.)


I guess these are the final bits of his 'babyness'. Once all the baby teeth are gone, nothing about him will be a baby anymore.

I've Definitely Turned Into My Mother

Firstly, Happy Mothers Day to all the mums out there!

I asked to spend the day at Mt Glorious today. Its a forest reserve with some walking trails that I had read were suitable for young children.

Thats why I say I have turned into my mother. I can remember my mother planning many, many trips to Cameron Highlands in Malaysia. And guess what the number one activity there is? Walking along the trails! I absolutely hated it. My parents still remember me moaning throughout all the walks we had. It wasn't that I found them tiring, I just did not enjoy it one little bit. Not the cool air, or trees, or monkey cups or anything about it.

And now, I've become a mother that looked forward to walking the trails with her son. The difference is that Aaron had a fantastic time. Adrian toggled between being whiny (like the old me) and also having an exciting time.

Aaron was looking for some adventure and after I sent him 'off-trail' the first time, he felt great and wanted more. I'm not saying that I'm a better mother than my mother because she's obviously the best but I made a slight improvement on her way of enjoying nature. I had three little games to play with the boys as we made our way through the 3km trail.

First, I would look out for alternative routes that Aaron could take, away from the designated trail. He would have to work out his own way in the general direction I pointed. They were just short deviations that cut across to join up with the main trail again. Can you see him? For this one, I asked him to climb down from where we were and walk across the trickling stream (without getting his shoes wet) and then wait for me on the trail on the other side.

The second game we played was hide and seek. He got to run up ahead, hide, and then try to give me a shock when I walked past. Adrian joined in on this game and gave them away every time.

I was struggling to think of a third game but it turned out to be the simplest one of all - pretend you're a hunter. Hah! I told him he had to move around without making any noises - no talking, stepping on dry leaves or sticks or even coughing. I used this game sparingly but it worked well.

When my mother gets back to Brisbane, I'm going to drag her along to one of these days of roaming the sub-tropical rainforests. I wonder what she thinks of it now....

The Things He Says...and Thinks.

Everybody knows how hilarious, innocent and often, insightful a child's observations can be. I'm always amazed at how they can sometimes point out details that I never notice or, on the opposite side, the big picture that I failed to appreciate.

When I picked Aaron up from school, he came to me and seemed to be quite excited about something.

"Hey Mama, I think I know something!"

I could see that he felt some sort of sense of accomplishment and pride at this new found ability. I wondered what it was and fully expected it to be something from the classroom. This is what he says next.

"I think I know how to tell if somebody is Chinese." 

I was momentarily caught off guard there. On hindsight, I seem to remember him saying it with the same sort of look that Maxwell Smart used to say things when he figured something out. Sort of like this...

I wasn't expecting that revelation from him and thought it was cute, funny and strange all at the same time. First of all, I always thought that he already knew how to identify a Chinese person. He knows we're Chinese and I just assumed that he would have made the association with other Asian looking people by now. So, I asked him how he figured it out since everybody had two eyes, two ears, two legs, one nose etc...

And once again, with a beady eyed, Maxwell Smart type look, he says:

"I don't know. I can just sense it."

We continued on in this line for awhile and I made sure not to mention skin, hair or eye color. I still expected him to eventually mention this most obvious way of determining if a person might be Chinese but he never did. He maintains that he doesn't know how he knows it but he just has a feeling if somebody is Chinese (I think he actually means 'Asian' but I didn't want to confuse the matter).

One of the skills that is sometimes noted as 'milestones' for children is the ability to segregate and categorise similar items. Of course, Aaron would have noticed people looking different (and his brain is probably processing the skin and hair color subconsciously) but I think that to him, we are all in the same category of 'human'. I'm just extrapolating here but I'm sure that his processing of the various religions that he has encountered, is going to be similar to how he processed race.

I wish I could have a video of these precious conversations that I have with Aaron.

Wordless Wednesday - Reminding Aaron Of Palembang

These photos were taken around the forth week of April in 2009.

Going for a walk to buy coconut milk : 

His favourite work was in the garden :

Calling out to the neighborhood kids :

For more Wordless Wednesdays, visit My Little Drummer Boys.

Aaron - A Super Big Brother

Today, I realized that if I ever want to get an idea of my day-to-day parenting habits, all I need to do is watch Aaron with Adrian. The thing is, I really don't want to know that I'm snappy or stern but I must be because I watched Aaron be that way to Adrian today. Aaron is super helpful and completely aware of how much work goes into each day with the two of them. Throughout these school holidays, he has been toggling between being a five year old that frequently does not hear his mother speaking to being a five (going on thirty five) year old that tries to take on some of the day-to-day parenting of his younger brother.

I've watched Aaron get Adrian's clothes out and change him in the mornings, feed him meals, take him to the bathroom, read to him, wipe his nose and all sorts of other things. Its heartwarming to watch. I never imagined that Aaron would grow to be so caring towards Adrian. Here he is carrying Adrian (12 hours old) for the first time.

I'm sure you're all wondering what I've been doing since he does all the work here but I assure you, this is not an all day affair - he toggles, remember. As I was saying, its all lovely to watch until Aaron tries to get Adrian to do something that he doesn't want to do. Immediately, I hear Aaron use the same tone that I now realize I use. Its much too stern and sometimes sounds snappy and cold. I have heard threats as well, which reminds me that I don't want to be that mother.

We were talking about nephews and nieces and Aaron mentioned that my brother has no nieces. And then he said "I don't think he'll ever get a niece because I don't think we want any more children. Adrian is enough." I must have unknowingly been putting some expectation on Aaron. Its good that he's a responsible little boy but I wouldn't want him to feel burdened by it all or one day resent Adrian for making his life harder.

More On Aaron's Transition To Cycle 2

Aaron is finally spending full days in his new class. I did a post on the transition when Aaron first started visiting on 22nd February. He was staying there for half the day and returning to his old class for lunch and the rest of the afternoon. It was only last Wednesday that he tried out a full day at the new class. He seemed happy, excited and proud of himself when I picked him up that afternoon. He stayed full days on Thursday and Friday as well and I thought we were finally over the daily discussions about the move.

Not quite. We were back to the endless negotiations this morning but he still stayed the whole day and ultimately enjoying it. I thought the new playground would be a major drawcard for him to stay with his new class and I was using it to entice him to stay over lunch. Surprisingly, he told me today that he did not want to play there at all and that he spent lunch time sitting alone, reading. Whats going on?!

I haven't been able to get any real reasons out of him yet. The children that I have met have all seemed friendly and I've seen him joke around with a few of them. I'm not worried about this yet and I don't think anybody picked on him. He'll just have to work it out on his own - and I'm sure he will.

Apart from playground issues, I think he has been thriving in the new class. I can see how excited he is when he tells me about what he did during the day. Today, he suggested that we do a project to cross reference his dinosaur books to make sure they all had matching timelines. Supposedly, he has been working on timelines at school. (By the way, we found a discrepancy between two books on when the Baryonyx lived.) The other day, he came back and told me he did 'geology' but in the end, we figured out it was actually 'geometry'. Its exciting to know that his days are filled with an array of new work and exposure to all sorts of information that he is not yet aware of.

Alright, thats enough bragging from this mom. Just a very quick post today because the weekend of incredible fun has resulted in me having a very sore throat and the start of a cold. I need to beat it so I'm heading to bed.

Another Makedo Project

Today, I felt totally justified in buying the Makedo kit I mentioned in this post. The first dump truck project was mostly me but this morning, Aaron spent the whole morning 'designing', sawing and putting together this 'house'. I helped out occasionally but it was his initiative.

I'm proud of his efforts and his perseverance at it surprised me. He usually starts asking for help about two minutes into any projects he starts but he was so engrossed in the design he had in mind that he didn't need me much at all. Somehow, he even managed to work peacefully with Adrian as his 'assistant'.

This project kept them occupied for most of today. The actual construction time was around two hours (lots of sawing!) but that was spread out through many play sessions with the boxes. I think this is definitely something that I would think of giving as a gift the next time I had to get a birthday present for a child.

Funeral Plans

I had a very interesting conversation with Aaron and Adrian today. Out of the blue, Aaron proclaimed from his car seat that he would be an excavator driver when he grew up - no surprises there. It was his second proclamation that got my attention. He announced that Adrian would be a coffin maker. What?!

Aaron's rationale was that Adrian would make my coffin and he would dig the hole where my coffin would be buried. Now, don't start thinking that my kids already wish me dead, they were actually being very matter-of-fact about it. I told them that I preferred to be cremated (and kept in an urn in their home). Unfortunately, Aaron insisted that he didn't want me to be burned up. And, without me even saying it, he came to the realization that if I wasn't cremated, I'd have to decompose in the ground. So, in this horrified voice, he said "I don't want the maggots to eat you either! I want to put something on you so that you'll stay the same."

Of course, this lead to quite a drawn out back and forth conversation about how we all have to die and we all either end up decomposing or cremated. I had to resort to offering them some snacks in the car to distract then from the conversation because it was reaching the point where Aaron was starting to get worried about me dying. And when I said that if I didn't get sick or have an accident, I should have many more years left, it didn't console him for long because he then started to think of my parents and how old they already are now.

Poor little guy, he was really starting to get worked up about it. It started off as an innocent plan on how to prepare my grave but it lead him to realize a whole lot of unpleasant things about the end of life. I gave him my usual explanation of how when we die, we hopefully get to heaven and will meet the people that have died before us. Thats how I like to think about it but you can see how easily a five year old is going to shoot me down with questions on that one.

It was a somewhat depressing conversation but at the same time, it was sweet to see how much Aaron cares about me.

Good Times

Aaron and Adrian are typical brothers. One minute they are professing how much they love each other and how they are each other's BFFs and the next, they are screaming and biting. As such, I'm always being toggled between feeling how great it is to have two boys and asking God "Why me? Why two boys?"

At the end of each day, I always go to sleep with the happy feelings. I know that Aaron genuinely cares for Adrian and is a fantastic big brother. In fact, I think he's doing a better job at being the eldest than I was when my brother and I were little. He protects him, tries to teach him things, engages him in play that is appropriate for a 2 year old and even takes him to the loo (!!). For now, I know that Adrian looks forward to Aaron coming home from school so they can play but I can't clearly see that he cares for Aaron yet. 

I thought I'd share a few photos of a particularly fun time they had. This was taken on Sunday when we were waiting outside for Richard to finish his clogging class. I'm usually outside with the two of them and they are free to run around everywhere, up and down ramps. This particular hall is at the Caboolture showgrounds and on a Sunday afternoon, there are no cars around so I sometimes also take their bicycles along.  

Its night time now and there is nobody screaming. So, I'm thinking "I don't want them to grow up!"

Learning About Money

One of my favourite times during the day is after dinner and before Aaron's bed time. This is the only time of the day that I can give Aaron my full attention and I always try to make it as productive as possible. He's usually tired after a long day but if I put enough effort in to make a game out of everything, he's still incredibly receptive. 

I don't think I would like to be a classroom teacher but I love teaching Aaron. There are always new ideas that I want to try out or topics that I want to explore with him. I think I still have some hidden desire to completely homeschool him but thats unrealistic. 

This week, we started learning about money. He got his first taste of the value of money when he took the two dollars he earned from painting a door knob hanger to a book shop. He was very disappointed when he found out that a sharpener was about the only thing he could afford. So, we've been discussing the value of money for some time but I haven't had a chance to break down the mechanics of money with him yet. 

We've starting at the very beginning (almost) and learning to count money and how the coins can be used in different combinations to make up totals. Maybe I can even teach him to go pay for things and work out the change he needs to wait for. 

My intention is to also show him how money is made and circulated. And maybe I'll draw up something to show him how the price of a good or service is derived - hence explaining how Richard's daily trip to work results in money for our needs. I don't think I'll go any further than that for a five year old. He doesn't need to know about the current financial woes in the global economy. 


I always end up feeling like I have achieved something when I see Aaron feel excited and eager to learn more about something. 

Are Teachers Being Too Nice?

This week, Aaron started visiting his new class. He is transitioning from his current kindergarten class to a Grade 1 class. This is what the school usually does at the end of the school year for the children that are moving up a class. He was a 'late entry' to Grade 1 so he missed the transition period at the end of last year when other classmates went through this whole visiting routine.

Now, after two weeks of catching up with his friends after the holidays, he has started to spend time in the new Grade 1 class. We have been talking about this for awhile and I know that inside, he's excited about it. But of course, when the time came, he was anxious and probably feeling very alone because he had no friends yet. This morning, I happened to be around when two children from Grade 1 came to walk him over and he had tears in his eyes. He hasn't cried on any other 'first days'!

I think maybe the school/teachers have been a little too nice here. They are giving him the choice to come back whenever he wants and making sure that he is comfortable with everything. Yes, it is very considerate of them but I wonder if it would work better if they just made a clean break. Then he wouldn't have to go away and feel anxious and then come back to his old class and feel the comfort from him. Or maybe, a better strategy would be to outline for him that each subsequent day visiting Grade 1 will be for a longer period than the first until finally, say three days later, he can just go directly there.

At home, I've been trying to convince him that the way to go is to get into the new class as soon as possible so that he can teach his friends about everything when it is their turn to transition. Supposedly, there are several other children that will transition before the middle of the year.

Having said all that, I can see how their approach is aligned with the Montessori way of 'following the child'. I just can't help thinking that life was so much simpler when I went to school. Teachers were just more grown ups to tell you what to do. No talking to teachers or telling them how you feel or what you want.