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So I feel the need to document Emmett starting preschool at Kinder. Kinder is an international preschool with cohorts of Catalan, German and English in the morning and Spanish for the afternoon... its philosophy is based on a lot of the educators I like such as Marie Montessori and Rudolf Steiner

Spain does things a little different: once kids turn 3 they often put them into preschool for 5 full days. It’s crazy but free for those working, although even non-working moms often seem to put the kids in the schools since it is rare to see any children over the age of three at a playground.

I really struggled with the full 5 days even though it was "half" days. I had the option of 8:30 - 12 or 2 (including an organic lunch... which btw, the catering company says his diet is crazy and unhealthy... argh... but they will make him a special diet and they get regulated so it’s got fruits and veggies every meal...)

The kids are ages 3-6 in Emmett’s room and there are about 14 kids in his class, 1 lead teacher and 2 helpers... who happen to be boys... which is kind of fun (side note... there seems to be a lot less gender division in the workforce here as I’ve noticed before with many women sanitation working, and women butchers, and now male preschool teachers...)

They have this adaption process where the mom or dad goes for the whole first day and whole second day and then slowly leaves for periods of time as the child adjusts to the new school... well by day two Abby and I were gone for 1 hour and day 3 he didn’t want me around anymore, so he made Jeff drop him off and stayed through lunch - he LOVES it! After spending my whole life as a working mom feeling guilty about leaving him at daycare... it was an interesting feeling to have him "leave me". I found that it was nice and refreshing.... and while I have my own issues of not being "that mom" who can keep a schedule with proper discipline, and engagement with crafts and activities and playdates and learning themes and organic food, blah blah, I will say, now that Emmett is in school, I find I have more bandwidth to get closer to the patient and understanding mom I want to be....its early though... so who knows:)

And I am more productive.... in 1 morning, Abby and I went to the playground, the market, the bike store (for 45 minutes) went to a bakery and 2-3 kids stores and another playground... all before picking Emmett up....