Somerville, Mass – While riding the bus this week, Twin V noticed that somebody had etched a name into the window pane. “Why would anybody write on the window?” he demanded accusingly. “That’s not right.” I nodded in agreement. Then…
Raising Bilingual Kids – Kindergarten
Somerville, Mass – Here we go again. At this time last year, I agonized over the decision about where the twins should attend pre-kindergarten. This year I have been agonizing over the decision about where they should attend kindergarten. The…
How Finland Keeps Kids Focused
Somerville, Mass – As a follow-up to my previous post about Free Play, here is another article from the Atlantic about an interesting (and not necessarily intuitive) discovery made by an American teaching in Finland. It’s no secret that I…
Let’s Talk about Race
Somerville, Mass – We are blessed to live in an ethnically and racially diverse town. The twins’ class of 18 includes students that are African American, Arabic, Iranian, Latino and Sikh. Last year their teachers were from Columbia and Peru, and their babysitters have…
Pre-K
Somerville, Mass – We did it. We completed our first week of pre-K without any tears–at least not on the part of the twins. Upon pickup each day, there was a positive report from both teachers and kids. Yesterday, without…
Vacation Week
Somerville, Mass – Vacation week is some kind of a sick joke. It is wrong on many levels: 1. The twins are in preschool. They do not need a vacation from preschool. 2. It’s not just vacation from school. There’s…
Raising Bilingual Kids – Preschool
Somerville, Mass – The twins are turning four this spring, and it’s time to make some decisions about next year. Are we going to keep them at the wonderful, nurturing, supportive, private preschool where they have been learning Spanish for…