Finn Goes to School!

Finn is all by himself at preschool right now. I'm on pins and needles, of course. Today is just a trial day so we stayed with him for the first half an hour and then sneaked away. It will be interesting to hear how he likes it! I'm still a bit torn whether or not this is a good idea, but he is SO social that I think he will really thrive. It is a small private preschool with only four students in the class. It seems like they follow a surprisingly rigorous teaching schedule (including mathematics and "preparing your hand for writing"), which seems a bit ridiculous to me. And I tend to subscribe to the more "learn from play" school of thought (especially at his age), but I don't think that is a thing yet here. So anyway, we'll have to decide if this is something we want to do or not. The teacher and students are all Russian so there is no doubt the kid will be bilingual if we go ahead with it.

On one hand, part of the purpose of moving here was to spend more time together as a family, but this preschool commitment is only 4 hours a day (9am-1pm), three days a week, so I don't think we are compromising our family time too much. And another goal was for the rest of us to learn Russian -- this should free up a bit of my time to find a tutor as well. We will be incurring some unbudgeted expenses, but it would be a shame to move home in 2 or 3 years and still not know anymore Russian than when we came! Matt has been able to pick up more work than we expected, so we should still be able to avoid tapping into our savings.

So what do YOU think? Is structured immersion school for a 3 1/2 year old a good idea? Right now he is such a sponge, asking why 25 million times a day. He LOVES to learn how things work (the body, plumbing, elevators, etc) and also loves to be around people. I know some people believe a structured learning environment kills a child's eagerness to learn, but I don't know if I agree. Obviously if he doesn't want to go we won't force him. I think he will be delighted to discover there is a whole new world of challenges and learning opportunities at school, as long as he doesn't get too frustrated. One of the girls in his class isn't even three yet so that should help him feel secure and proud of all of his advanced skills.

UPDATE: Of course I didn’t get this finalized and posted before we had to pick him up, so I might as well tell you how it went. Finn loved it! He didn’t cry at all and was giddy when we picked him up. He did ask why we left him, but then ran off to wash his hands, so he wasn’t exactly feeling clingy. He was excited to show us the little clay and paper craft he made, and tell us about things he learned. Back at home while eating lunch quite a few new Russian words were already being used! When I asked him if he wanted to go back he said that he didn’t because he will miss us. I think he really enjoyed it, but doesn’t like to think about being away from us. We will probably proceed, although we need to figure out how to get a physical from a doctor – other than being a language and cultural challenge, I don’t foresee that being a problem, just difficult for us. One frustrating part of the school is that you have to

commit to and pay for 6 months in advance; if it ends up being a stressful experience or we change our minds I think we will be out a significant amount of money.

This past week Paul had a Canadian family visiting so we had the privilege of some extra time together, and in English even. Finn loved the two teenage girls and talked their ears off on the tram rides to and from meeting. Lev was his usual charming self.