St. M Open House

Dear Logan,

On Saturday, after dropping daddy off at Auntie Rachel and Uncle Paul's house to help them move, Mommy and big brother continued on our mission to check out more open houses.

We headed to St. M, which is pretty close to where we live. This school didn't seem too big, and the hallways are painted in yellow and blue (I guess those are the school colors).

The Pre-K students shared the room with the 3-4 yr olds as well. At first I thought the room was pretty big. After talking to the teacher, I found out the Pre-K shared the room with the little ones, and half of the room is actually for extended care. The room didn't seem that big after all. The teacher I talked to is new to the school. She's soft spoken and obviously doesn't know the school very well. The other teacher was talking to another parent, so I didn't get to talk to the more experienced one.

There are 2 Pre-K teachers, and they have about 22-36 kids. Children bring their own lunch. I need to look up their website to see if they have catering for lunches. I didn't see that in my notes. They have music class every Tuesday and a science class where they learn how to grow celery. I asked about what's expected from the kids, and this young teacher told me that the Diocese expects all kids to at least learn to count to 10. She said they want them to count to 20. Ok, that's not good enough. I guess if I have asked a more experienced teacher, I would get a better answer. The extended care reinforced homework and also fun activities. The teacher said the preschoolers are buddied up with the 4th graders. They have a buddy-system going on.

I then headed to the KG room and spoke with a more experienced, and enthusiastic teacher. The ratio is 1 teacher to 20-25 kids plus a full-time aide. Aside from books, there are toys and coloring pencils for kids. The teacher seemed to know what she is doing. She said they use a reading program called Super kids. It's a phonetic-based program. There are also songs that help reinforce what the children are learning. They also teacher kids how to decode and sound out each letter.

This school has a library (not too big but with lots of books) and a computer lab with a bunch of Macs. The teacher said the KG kids get to use the computer lab once a week, and maybe a little more during open time. There's PE every week and Music class once a week. The KG students are buddied up with the 5th graders.

On our way out, we passed by the gym. The gym isn't too big and it looked kinda old.

As much as I like the KG teacher's enthusiasm, I am not sure if I like this school and it's curriculum and facilities enough.

I think I am going to take a break. Kinda difficult to write 4 different entries in a night when I am getting tired. I think I might continue the Sunday open house recaps at another time.


Love you,
Mommy