Shannon Phillips

Tonight as we were unpacking our veggie box (two yellow onions, a big cabbage, two eggplants, about a pound of luscious Early Girl tomatoes, a big cucumber, a small watermelon, three ears of corn, four red and green sweet peppers, a bunch of Chinese broccoli, a few potatoes, a bag of loose arugula, and three nectarines), I turned my back for a moment, and when I looked again I saw Davy had helped himself to a fresh juicy nectarine:

He’s the cutest little fruit thief ever.

Around here, we’re mostly gearing up for Robin’s first day of school, next Tuesday. He’ll be going four days a week (Tuesdays through Friday), from 9 to 12. And since it’s a co-op school, I’ll be working as a teacher on Thursdays, while Sam works from home and keeps an eye on Davy. This has meant filling out a lot of paperwork: today we were scrambling around to get me a TB test. There have also been a lot of school meetings to get us new parents up to speed on how things work at Peter Pan. They seem to have gotten a pretty smooth system worked out (the school has been open since 1947, so they’ve had quite some time to work out the kinks), and their general philosophy of child-led learning is very much in line with my own opinions and values.

Basically each teacher is in charge of a “room” at the school—there’s a “block room” (which is really for all kinds of imaginative play, as it also has dolls and cars and dinosaurs and so forth), an art room, a library, a snack station, and then the outside areas, which are devoted to kinetic and sensory play. For most of the day the kids, ages 2 through 6, all move freely throughout the school: they mingle together, going where they like and using the materials as they please. It’s the parent-teachers’ job to facilitate the kids’ interests in a nurturing and age-appropriate way. The parents jokingly call the kids the “customers,” as each teacher stays in their room and “serves the customers” as they come and go. Towards the end of the morning all the kids are herded together to the park, and then back inside for a group story time.

I’m really looking forward to the start of school, even though I’m a bit nervous about this new part-time job I’ve taken on—in addition to the day of teaching duty every week, we’re also expected to put in maintenance hours keeping the school updated. Last week I went in and cleaned out the fridge. It will be a lot of work, but I want to be deeply involved with Robin’s school, and I’m really looking forward to having a bit more structure in my days. Despite my best intentions, it’s easy to get overwhelmed when I’m alone with both boys, and hard to keep up a good energy level. I think the start of school will be good for everyone.

Anyway, I’ll wrap this up with a bonus picture: bubble bath!