Luke is finished with his second year of Waldorf preschool, heading for public school next year. We have found a place to live in Columbus that has half-day kindergarten, and that is what we have decided Luke will do. And I have to say, it feels really good.
Gone are the days of furtively distributing spiderman fruit snacks after we have distanced ourselves by two blocks from Luke's school. Goodbye to forbidding certain movie-themed clothing from Luke's school wardrobe. And a big farewell to Rudolf Steiner's reincarnation, gnomes, and early weaning!
Don't get me wrong: I love feeding my children wholesome, organic food; I believe in very limited television; I think simple toys are often the best.
But I'm tired of feeling like bad junk-food-pop-culture-plastic-superhero mama. And because Luke is who he is, I always felt like his teachers were asking, "What caused him to pretend he was shooting with that lovely driftwood? Does he watch TV? Does he stay up late? Does he eat chocolate?" And, also because Luke is who he is, he has a categorical knowledge of all things superhero, soda-pop, and weapon-oriented. And I'm sure he talked about this stuff at school.
So my feeling now that Luke is done with this school is one of relief. And I think he feels happy, too. When we visited his friend Anna's more mainstream preschool the other day, he watched very closely. I think he is eager to go on to the next phase of his education. And I'm eager to find a place where I can feel more comfortable with my moderate parenting style, one that values outdoor play with rocks and sticks, but that simply can't justify forbidding a spiderman fruitsnack now and then.
3 comments:
I'm really glad you found a 1/2 day kindergarten; I agree that will be good for Luke. I totally understand your feelings about Waldorf; I also suspect that in the distance of a year or so, you'll miss all those crunchy little rituals...
At least I do. You should have seen the look someone gave me last week when I said we don't have TV. She said "What do you DO in the evening?" I had to defend myself by saying how many movies the girls watch on DVD.
Yeah for fruitsnacks!
Oh, I'm glad you've found a half-day kindergarten.
I'd feel relieved, too! I can certainly get behind alot of granola, but kids will be exposed to pop culture and pop, period, regardless of what their parents do, short of raising them in a shack in the woods with absolutely no one else around.
Oh yeah. Sometime early in the fall Drew went back to Sunflower on a day off from Lab (where he was finding the transition quite tough). That evening we had a serious discussion prompted by his "Did you know that you can go to Sunflower for Kindergarten?" So I told him WHY he was going to a different school. He replied "I DO love to learn to write."
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