A family affair.

In my last post, I wrote, "Good news, we got into Montessori!" which my most avid reader, who also happens to be my Mum pointed out by saying, " In my mind, it's Hugo who got into Montessori, not the whole family."

My immediate reaction when reading this was to think, "That's true! Here I am being a helicopter mum, unable to separate myself from Hugo." but the more I think about it, the more I believe both statements are true. 

Of course, it's Hugo who will be starting pre-school next year, not the rest of us. From that point, Hugo will start to have more and more life experiences that do not involve me, or any of us but that doesn't mean we'll be completely cast off to the side either.

In many ways, it will be a family affair.

First of all, the fact that Hugo was offered a spot there basically guarantees that Eloise will be offered a spot when she is old enough. Siblings get a priority which means that the ordeal of waiting lists one goes through with the first child is almost entirely eliminated for the subsequent ones. In that sense, it does mean that by association, Eloise got into Montessori too. 

As for us, there is an assumption that parents will be involved with the pre-school. Yesterday, we received the enrolment forms and in there, parents are asked to tick the activities they would be happy to participate in should the need come up. The list is actually quite long and is as follows, :

- Help with excursions, 

- Family picnics at the centre, 

- Parent information nights,

- Visit to the centre for special events, 

- Observations at the centre, 

- Becoming a family helper for a morning, 

- Bringing in a pet or special object to share with the children, 

- Help with sewing or special craft activities, 

- Graduation/Christmas celebrations, 

- Contributing a skill/activity to the program (eg. play instrument, bath baby, talk about culture...)

I'm not sure that back in my pre-school days, any of this would have been expected of parents. I do remember my parents helping with some school excursions (which I looooved) but I imagine that the expectation would have been to drop off the child in the morning and come back in the evening. 

These days though, the need for at least one parent to be involved with activities is pretty inevitable. 

The surprising thing for me is that when I see that list, I actually get a little excited. I never ever thought I would be interested in doing stuff like that and that it would be an absolute chore but somehow, the opportunity to observe Hugo in that context and contribute to that experience is appealing to me. In any case, that means I am in as well!

So maybe that leaves Chris a little out in the cold while we all hang out at Montessori although he might well be the one dropping Hugo off in the mornings so Chris will know the centre and the people working there well too. 

I think it's really exciting that they want parents to play a role and for us to work together with them for the child's best outcome. In the end, even with all the activities, our role will be limited, as it should be, but I like their open door policy and the fact that they want to create wide open communication channels with us. This is the first step towards building trust, for all of us.