To School Like Pinocchio
My daughter love to watch Disney videos and DVDs. I have gotten her a
huge collection and she absolutely loves the Sing A Long series. I don't
let her watch regular TV first off because I know that too much TV is no
good, and quite honestly with the exception of Public Television there
is really not much on the tube for a 3year old anyway. I am a little
anti television. Not that I don't watch it myself, I do on occasion, but
mostly I am too busy for it anyway. I have watched lots of Disney movies
though, you know the cartoony ones like Bambi, Cinderella and Snow
White. What you must know about little kids, if you don't already is
that they love repetition. They want you to read them the same books
over and over again until you are no longer actually reading the story
anymore, but reciting it from memory. The same goes with the movies.
Once she gets hooked on one she will watch it over and over again, until
you feel like your eyeballs are literally going to pop out of your head
if you hear the words and music one more time. Fortunately, it usually
only goes on for about a week or so, then it is on to the next one. I
think that perhaps for a young child there is some security in knowing
how things will turn out over and over again in the same fashion. I
figure it is either that or they are studying it hard to get it all
imprinted in their minds before switching to the next thing. In either
case, I as a person who hates to see the same movie twice, find this
phenomenon quite interesting.
This past week, she has been watching Pinocchio, which quite honestly has always been one of my favorite Disney movies. Well, she comes up to me the other day and says, "Mommy, I want to go to school like Pinocchio!" Now I have already told you that I have considered home schooling her. Well, I said if that is really what you want then we will go out and find a school for you. So the search begins to find a school that meets her needs and my own. I don't want a school that is going to discourage kids from learning. I want a healthy social environment where kids are encouraged. I still would like to home school her, but with my current schedule and being at school all day myself, I just don't have the time, and I am not at home to provide her with the structure she needs. My husband, although wonderful is not able to really provide structure, since his home of origin was always chaotic and haphazard. I want her to be in an environment that will allow her to thrive, and I think that we can probably find her a preschool program that runs a few days a week. This will allow some balance between school and home, and also provide my husband's day with a little bit more structure, to get him organized and out of the house a few days a week. Staying home with the little ones all day leaves him little time to be around grown ups. He says, even when he goes to the park with the kids he is there with all the Moms. Very rarely does he meet a stay at home dad like himself, but that is okay, he fairs okay with the other mommies and I do think that he is starting to get the hang of this staying at home thing.
