I Love Rowe

“I pick books that are just right for me.”

“It is not nice to say, ‘That’s easy’”.

“Tomorrow is pancake day and cookie day and double PE day!  I am so excited!”

I never know what my 5 year old daughter (Lila) will say when she gets off the bus, but I am always entertained.  Last night as I was tucking her into bed she asked if we had a rock collection.  She started telling me about basalt, tuff, and scoria.  Lila walks around singing songs about spelling.  She has started labeling items in our house.  This morning she counted to 100 while I was making breakfast.

Kindergarten is awesome.

Rowe School is the public school in Yarmouth that houses kindergarten and first grade.  It is a magical place.  At the first parent meeting the principal, Ellen Honan, made reference to Rowe celebrating our children.  This has stuck with me because I feel it every time I interact with the school or listen to my child talk about school.  Rowe celebrates the children in our community and their achievements.

The core values at Rowe are, “Safe, Kind, Helpful, and Polite”.  The halls are covered with bright, colorful artwork that depicts these values.  The children all sign a song about the values in music class.  At home, all I have to say to Lila is, “Was that safe, kind, helpful or polite?” and she responds positively.

Lila’s teacher is Ms. Finnen.  I have the pleasure of volunteering in the classroom so I have seen how she interacts with the children.  This morning, after reading a book together, she had the children share their reactions to the book.  As each child spoke, she put another block on a tower.  She told the children to share their thoughts without raising their hand.  When another child started to speak, they listened.  She explained that this was a conversation.  They were building a conversation, just like the blocks were building a tower.

Last week when I went into the classroom the lights were off.  The children were standing up and evenly spaced around the room.  I looked at the screen in the front of the classroom just as the music started.  The figure on the screen began to dance.  All of the children mimicked the moves on the screen.  It was wonderful to watch.

I have only experienced the Yarmouth public school system for a month and a half, but I sure feel lucky to live here.