Pre-School Report

For those of you following me on Facebook you will have already heard that Isolde unfortunately caught a cold at pre-school and missed two days this week.  But otherwise her pre-school start has gone well.  Here's a little report.

Welcome!

The first three days last week I was there with her throughout but tried to keep a little bit of a distance so she could explore the facilities and get to know the other children and the teachers.  But I was still the one who dressed her, changed her, helped her at mealtimes and put her to sleep after lunch.  She was quick at connecting with the other children and trying out all the toys and wasn't afraid to approach the teachers or the other parents present for their children's induction.  On Friday she was a bit cranky though, probably a mix of being tired after the two first days and the cold coming on.


Rocking hard!

Monday was supposed to be her first real day as in being left alone there (well, alone as in without parents), but due to the cold she had to stay at home Monday and Tuesday (and Peter and I had our VAB première with one day each).  Today she was well enough to attend but since four days had passed since she was last there I didn't just want to leave her right away this morning (even though she started playing right away) so I stayed for the first hour but kept a bit of a distance.  I then said a quick goodbye whereby she cried out a little bit but apparently it didn't last long after I had closed to door to the yard (they were outside playing).  I went inside to use the bathroom and get my handbag and just when I was about to leave one of the teachers came in with Isolde to find one of the other children's pacifiers.  I hadn't told the teacher I was going inside so she was a bit surprised but Isolde seemed to take it well even though she saw me and didn't seem to mind that I left (again).  I guess searching for the pacifier was more fun!

Peter picked her up at 3pm and was told that the rest of the day had gone well except for nap time when she was crying a lot and didn't want to sleep.  But eventually she and another child who was also upset (or couldn't sleep for some other reason) fell asleep in a different room from the other children.  She didn't eat much either but that could also be due to her cold because yesterday she didn't have much of an appetite either.

Tomorrow I will drop her off around 9 am and leave for work right away and hopefully she won't mind too much and also sleep better at nap time. 

So far we're very happy with the pre-school.  I got a really good impression of the teachers and I liked the atmosphere there.  They seem genuinely nice and warm and they could answer all our (as in me and the other parents) questions in a clear way.  They seem confident in their profession and their work (both the pedagogy and the care) with the children.  The other children that started in the spring (two children; the only ones left after the others have moved up to an older age group) and the two that started last week seem to feel at home and safe and have a close relationship with the teachers. 

Isolde's will be a small group for the next few months at least.  In addition to the four who started in the spring and the week before Isolde, there were five children who started at the same time as her and one who started this week.  That makes it 11 (4 girls and 7 boys) and in September or October another girl will start.  They have two more places to fill (they usually have 14 children) but they don't know yet when they would start.  They are three staff which is a pretty good teacher-child ratio.  The youngest children are 12 and 13 months and the oldest turns two in October.  Most are around Isolde's age, i.e. 1½ years old.

On a typical day at pre-school they will go to a nearby playground or park in the morning for an hour or so (or just stay in their own yard) and return back by 10:30 for some brief indoor playtime (and nappy change and similar) before they gather for song time (and downtime) around 10:45-11:00 ahead of lunch at 11:15.  After lunch at c. 12:00 it's nap time until 13:00 or 14:00 depending on how long each child sleeps.  Then it's play time or other activities like painting or crafts or story time the rest of the afternoon with a break for a snack around 14:15-14:30.  Snack is usually yoghurt, porridge or bread (or pancakes or hot dogs on Thursday when they get soup for lunch).  In the morning they are served fruit or rice cakes as a snack while they are out in the park or in the playground.  When they go out they have small wagons the kids ride in until they are old enough to walk longer stretches. 

Look out for the next report in a couple of weeks' time!

Pre-School

Big day tomorrow!  It's Isolde's first day at pre-school (förskolan)!  If the induction days count, which I think they do.  Otherwise, the real day is next Monday when she'll be there sans parents for the first time).

Induction is three days - Wednesday-Friday this week - and I will stay with her throughout the day 9:15-15:00.  Then on Monday I will drop her off at 9 and hopefully not hear anything before pick-up time.  The second week is technically induction too so she can only attend 9-15 (later she will have a bit longer hours) and I will be on stand-by if it's not working for some reason.  

This "three-day induction" is the method most pre-schools seem to be using nowadays instead of two or three weeks' induction where the child gradually spends more and more time at pre-school, such as 10 minutes the first day, 30 minutes the second day and so on.  While the "quick method" may not work for all children - and those children get more days - it's believed that three days is what is needed to adjust to a new environment and situation.  Especially if those three days are spent with a trusted parent who shares the first meeting with the teachers and the other children and is with them throughout all the activities and routines and shows them this is a fun and safe place to be.

I'm really excited about tomorrow!  Isolde is still rather oblivious even though we've been reading Kråkes förskola :)  She's a very social little girl so I think she's going to love it.  I also expect the induction will go well - fingers crossed - and if she has any difficulties it will come in a few weeks' or months' time when it's not new and exciting anymore.  Will keep you posted!

It was quite difficult to pick the pre-school and I hope this one will be right (although it's always possible to change of course).  Where we live in central Stockholm there are so many pre-schools and even if we tried to narrow the search we had around 25 pre-schools on the list to start with and had to get it down to five.  Five is the maximum number you can apply for through the central waiting list system in the municipality of Stockholm and those five have to be put in order of priority.  There's a really good comparison tool on the site to compare for example teacher-children ratio, number of teachers (trained, qualified) as opposed to other staff (non-qualified, without teaching degree), pedagogy and results from the parent questionnaire.  Most were however quite similar so in the end we very much ordered them on the basis of the parent questionnaire and especially key questions we thought mattered the most.  There are both municipal and private (independent) pre-schools in the central system, but many private ones have their own waiting lists so we also applied to many of those.  However, as both types are equally - and heavily (parents pay only 7-10% of the real cost in fees) - funded by the public purse, the City of Stockholm is planning to "force" the remaining pre-schools into the central system, albeit still allowing them to apply different admittance criteria, for example parent co-ops require parents to help out in different ways.

Our plan was to visit the five on our (central) list (there was no way we could visit 25 before narrowing it down) but I was recommended to wait until the spring before we wanted her to start.  By the way, the earliest you can apply through the central system is at 6 months while the private ones accept applications as soon as the baby has been born.  However, before we had got around to booking visits we were offered a place at our no 1 choice and we only had four days to reply.  So instead of visiting five pre-schools we just visited one.  Even though in an ideal world I would have wanted to be able to compare firsthand and I regret that we didn't visit all five pre-schools earlier in the process, it felt fine accepting the offer and I think it is the right choice (although since I haven't visited the others I can't know for sure...  I remind myself that in some parts of Sweden people just have one or very few choices and I guess I shouldn't complain). 

We were there for about an hour on the visit and visited both småbarnsavdelningen, Nallen (age 1-2 where Isolde will start) and the two older groups (age 3-4 and 5-6).  The pre-school is located in an early 20th century building and Nallen is on the first floor in premises that were in all likelihood a flat once upon a time (same for the other groups on the second floor, where they occupy the whole floor).  At first we were struck by how small it was, perhaps 60-70 sqm, but then we remembered that 14 little one-two-year-olds (and three staff) don't need that much space, especially since they spend most of the mornings outside and after 3pm the little ones usually join the older children upstairs.  The premises were a bit worn and torn (e.g. window sills and doorsteps could use a coat of fresh paint) but my friend the pre-school teacher (and my mum, also a pre-school teacher) had told us to look beyond such things (and in a way you can see it as fin-de-siècle charm) and focus on the staff and the teachers, the atmosphere (including how the children seemed to feel and behave) and the pedagogy and ways of teaching.  And we liked what we saw and felt.  They are not a pure Reggio Emilia pre-school but they are inspired by Reggio (as is the Swedish pre-school curriculum but to what degree varies from pre-school to pre-school).  They have a very small yard/outdoor play area, as many pre-schools located in the city (and some don't even have one at all), so instead they go to parks nearby (Humlegården, Tessinparken), other green areas (Gärdet, Djurgården) and the woods (Lill-Jansskogen) at least three or four days a week, rain or shine. 

But I'm sure I will have more to tell after tomorrow!

Meanwhile Peter started working yesterday after nine months parental leave and really had mixed feelings about it (as did I back in November when I returned to work after ten months leave) but is already back into the swing of project planning and meeting.  No soft start there. 

Flower Sitter

I think we must have the best blomvakt - "flower sitter"/plant waterer -  there is.  We were only gone for a week and it rained a lot the second half of the week, so Peter's friend K. didn't have to come more than once.  But he returned a second time a couple of hours before our homecoming to set our table with a delicious little buffet.  It was the perfect surprise for a crumbling tummy at 10 pm after a 2½ hour flight.

Thanks K!!

Isolde at 18 Months Old

Isolde is approaching 19 months so this 18-month-old post is really overdue.  But for the record...

At 18 months, Isolde...

• weighed 9,160 gr and was 76 cm tall (or short).
• displays many kan själv ("I can do it myself") tendencies, especially dressing herself.  A few times she has managed to put her trousers on, almost all the way.
• is very into Teletubbies and In the Night Garden.  Good thing she'll start pre-school soon and there will be less time for TV temptation. 
• has had a real daddy period again but if Peter's not home she doesn't seem to care.  Usually she doesn't mind him leaving but starts crying when he comes back - it's kind of cute.
• has had a major teething period with difficult nights and massive drooling for a week - but the results are unclear?
• is like a little child now and definitely not a baby anymore.
• still doesn't talk much but understands a lot and can follow most instructions.  But she says at least 8 (?) words which is apparently something they ask about at the 18-month check-up.
• has a lot of energy and can't sit still too long at story time. 
• sometimes does want to sit in her pushchair and hassles herself out of it and climbs into it and sits down when she wants to go out or leave the playground.
• is very frustrated at times. 
• still just laughs at us when we tell her no.  We try to look very serious and sometimes she's almost getting it but not quite.  But I've read that laughing is one of their actions when they don't know how else to act.  And they say it's about repetition, repetition, repetition. 
• is climbing much more than she did before.  She can get up on children's size chairs, the sofa, our glass sofa table, etc. but luckily she's still too short for big furniture but has managed a few chairs as well.
• likes us helping her to somersaults. 
• really likes shoes (ehum, wonder where she gets that...) and especially these little pink sandals from H&M she's been wearing most of the summer.
• does not like having her teeth brushed at all!
• likes riding her rocking chair, Bobby Car and tricycle but doesn't reach the pedals on the tricycle so we still need to push her around on that one.
• likes playing with dolls and teddies and to dress and undress them (well, she tries to)
• can build a tower with bricks (she hadn't played with bricks that much but she did it without difficult at the 18-month check-up).
• doesn't have a cuddly toy or a comfort blanket still; she likes her thumb and that's enough it seems.
• picks at one of our ears when we're putting her to bed or when she's tired and wants to cuddle for a while.  One early morning when we were all asleep in our bed she and I were sleeping close to each other and she was apparently picking at my ear in her sleep.  Peter was going to take a picture but I woke up just then and ruined the photo :-/
• can run and is getting pretty comfortable walking up and down steps and climbing at the playground though Peter who spends most time with her knows much better what she can do and what she can't and doesn't get as nervous as me.
• can unlock the iphone and skip to the page with "her" apps (she finds the right group of apps) and she can also find GPlayer on Peter's phone and turn on Teletubbies.  She also knows that Teletubbies at home comes through the computer connected to the TV which has a different remote than the TV.  Modern kids are such techies!
• doesn't like if her nappy gets too wet and also usually tells us right away if she's done no 2. First step to potty training eventually I hope.
• can do proper kisses now - she pouts her little mouth and doesn't kiss with a wide open mouth anymore - and she's gives them often at her own initiative.