Raintree- written three weeks ago...

It's been almost a month now that Nash has been spending half his day at his new school, Raintree. After not even a week of tears, he declared that he wasn't going to cry anymore. And every day since, when I pick him up her tells me "I didn't cry today!" And, I don't cry anymore either, though some days I miss him like crazy. It is such a neat little school and I'm so happy we found it! The school has kids from 3-6 years old, and the classes are divided by age. Nash is the youngest one in the school, having started the day before his 3rd birthday. His class now has 9 kids (2 are new in the last month) and they are called the Dinosaurs, led by their fearless teacher Mary Beth who Nash looooves. She calls him "Nashy" and sometimes I see her play with his hair a little, which makes me happy. He talks about her a lot. And she is wonderful. She is 2 years out of college, with special teaching certifications and one year previous experience. She looks like the kind of person a kid would like, and when addressing the class she calls them "friends" and says things like "friends, let's catch a bubble and close our eyes" which means they should pretend to catch a bubble in their mouth, which will make them quiet, so they can have rest time. The other classes are called the Butterflies, and the big kids are the G4s (like G force, I think.)
The school is based on this approach called Regiio Emilia. The school's website is here under the raintree. Here's a brief description, should you not feel like reading all about it. It's a project based school, so everything thing they study revolves around a theme/project and all the disciplines tie in. And this project can last from a month to all school year. The kids pick the project. So they talk about what they're into and decide what they want to learn about. Right now Nash's class is studying music. There are no toys in the room, there are only building materials, art supplies, lots of books, comfy places to hang out. His room has a full size keyboard color-coded to a key on the wall, to teach them to play twinkle-twinkle little star. Nash knows how to turn it off and on, change the volume and sounds, and he can play Twinkle Twinkle. There's also a CD player in the room, and a digital camera, all available for them to use any time they want. The lessons here are the CDs available, in different tempos and melodies and pitch, for different times of day. He is recognizing how music can create different environments and evoke different emotions. And they're capturing that on camera, and are making a "music video" for the other kids at the school to watch! He has learned Jaws da-na da-na da-na for suspense. And probably my favorite thing that he showed me after school is the rope dance! He was circling the lasso and throwing and drawing it in! And he learned the robot! And ballet and marching, among other things. They're also creating art to music - again, different emotions. They've had a dancer visit them and teach them some moves, they're reading books about music and dancing, they're showing their new moves to the rest of the school at a pep-rally. Everything they do is music music music.
Nash goes early, gets there at 8, even though class doesn't start until 9, because then he can see what Chef Scott made for breakfast and decide if he wants some, and play outside before class. Chef Scott makes wholesome organic food for breakfast and lunch that smells AWESOME! And Nash hardly eats a bite of it :) But maybe one day he will. Nash loves to wash his own dishes after lunch. And loves jumping on the tree stumps outside with his favorite friends, Gage, Sacci and Osmond. But he also talks about new kids everyday. Nash has always been pretty shy, but I've seen him at school playing outside, when he didn't know I was watching, and we've found a safe. happy place for him. What more could I ask for?
(Sorry this has taken so long to post.)