School Days

Edith has officially started school. At least that's what Gretchen and I call it. We even got the requisite "first day of school picture," albeit without the yellow school bus in the background or the Trapper Keeper in hand. I'm sure that's some sort of projection of our own excitement about school. Yet I don't think our excitement was totally unwarranted. First of all, it's not as though we were just abandoning her with a strange babysitter all day, to be ignored while one harried teacher attempts to feed and diaper ten kids. There are only two other kids in Edith's class at the moment, so she gets a LOT of personal attention. But day care also has a lot in common with school. It's certainly hard to distinguish the objectives of day care from the objectives of a pre-school or kindergarten. They each structure the day around age-appropriate learning activities; it's just that the older kids don't have to stop as often to eat and don't have to have their diapers changed (I hope).

For example, when we dropped her off for her first day of "school" on Wednesday, we happened to have left her food for the day at home in the freezer by accident. By the time we came back an hour later to drop it off, she had already produced her first work of art! Sure, it was veggie art (where you take vegetables, dip them in non-toxic paint, and stamp their imprints on construction paper), but it's more than I would have exposed her to on my own. We're definitely more likely to read a book to her or sing to her or stimulate her with toys than to try art projects. It makes you remember how valuable it is for your child to have other influences than just her parents.

And it's not just the curriculum that we appreciate. The social interaction seems to be the most exciting thing for Edith. When we went to pick her up on Wednesday, the infant-room teacher was sitting cross-legged on the floor with Edith in her lap, and two of the other children had come over to play with her. Every time we've carried her through the building, she gazes raptly at the older children, too.

Most people, when we tell them that Edith has started day care, ask how we're doing. Gretchen was a little verklempt that first day, but no tears. We're mostly very excited about the whole process. We only wish Edith were able to talk to us about her day when we pick her up.

We're not completely in the dark, of course. We get a written report from the teacher every day, telling us how she did. It resembles a baseball box score, oddly enough. "She struggled through a short nap in the third inning, and crawled through the fifth. A diaper change in the seventh resulted in a save. Safe at home in the ninth." Well, no, not exactly like that. But it does show you in grid form the time and duration of every nap, feeding, wet diaper, and dirty diaper. In the comments section they even tell you what songs they sang that day and whether or not she had a runny nose. Gretchen and I have so far been parsing these reports closely, even obsessively, though I'm sure they'll be scrap paper soon enough.

The only cause for any concern at this point is that Edith's appetite seems to have increased dramatically. We're not sure if the new environment is so stimulating that she's burning more calories, or if the day care teachers are responding to every sign of distress by feeding her. But at this rate, Gretchen won't be able to pump enough milk to keep up. During a normal day when I have her at home, Edith eats about 12 ounces of milk and perhaps half a jar of baby food. In her first day at school, she ate 20 ounces and a whole jar of baby food! On her second day, I picked her up early to get to her 6 month pediatrician appointment and she had already eaten 12 ounces and a full jar of peas. There's always formula as a last resort, but I know Gretchen would prefer to stick to breastmilk if at all possible. My guess is that once she's comfortable enough to take longer naps in the new environment, she'll eat less.

All in all, we're pleased with the school and the teachers. I remain confident that this will be a great experience for Edith.