SKOLA: The First Week

To any readers who are Swedish, you read correctly... Daniel is started "school" last week at the Scandinavian School in Jersey City.  It's a nursery school that opened 2 blocks from our house late last year.  The school immediately filled up and we've been on the waiting list for about 6 months.

The school is run by a local mom (and educator) who is Swedish and wanted to bring the philosophies of Scandinavian childcare over here.  The children are basically outside all the time (rain, snow, or sun) and the love we feel in that school is off the charts!

The first week was a smash success.  Not a single tear (other than my own ridiculous blubbering on day one) and I came home every day to a super happy, crazy good mood Daniel.  We transitioned him to be there a little bit longer every day and every day he did better than we could have imagined.  Also, how cute is he with that backpack?!

On top of all of the usual goodness that you could imagine comes from an environment like this (amazing socialization, exposure to a different language, diversity in ethnicity and culture amongst the children, happy outside time for a toddler to run around, etc) all of the food is homemade, almost all organic, comes from our local co-op and/or farmer's market and is vegetarian!  What?!  You heard me right.  Daniel, my son who seemed to be turning into such a picky eater is now eating Quinoa and Beet & Carrot Casserole.  Amazing!

This will be his first full day full week, so let's all keep our fingers crossed.  I'm off to San Francisco for the entire week, so Matt gets to reap the joy of picking him up every day and seeing that smile when he walks in the door!

Here are some pics from the first day:

We're ready to go!

Stopping for a little puddle jumping

Daddy to the rescue when Daniel just didn't want to finish the 2 block walk

While I was crying, I tried to snap a picture of "circle time"

Just a note here that I left telling the Director that Daniel probably wouldn't eat.  She sent me this picture 30 minutes later and told me that he hasn't stopped eating since!  I'm such a sucker at home!