Sam's schooldaze

I don't know why I insist on calling daycare "school" but I do; it makes it sound more important and educational than perhaps it is. Sam's been going to school two days a week since he was nine months old and it hasn't seemed to damage him as far as I can tell. Now, it could be that without daycare he'd be a perfectly well behaved child that read by the age of one or is the next Mozart but I seriously doubt that. I do know that he'd probably spend less time with a snotty nose and we may have been able to totally bypass the multiple ear infections last winter but overall, he seems to be a fairly well adjusted little dude.

Still, there was a big heap of maternal guilt about sending him to daycare in the first place but now that the barrier has been broken, I feel only slightly more guilty about adding another day per week. As of Feb. 27, he's going to be going to "school" on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. Home time still outnumbers school time so I don't feel as though they're raising our boy instead of us. This extra time will allow me to catch up at work since work seems to be filled with all sorts of new stuff to do that is messing with my ability to do a full time job in two days a week. Oops, I suppose I shouldn't admit that I can usually do that because it sounds as though work expectations are low. Er, they are. But still, there is something rewarding about getting a job evaluation that makes it sound as though I walk on water. Too bad that doesn't mean I get a raise.

I always ask Sam about his day when he comes home from daycare and he always tells me "I play with toys" and "I play with friends" although he's never very specific about the things he does. I know they do things I'd never think to do at home -- they had him making biscuits last winter for instance. They've got a sensory table that is always filled with really messy substances I wouldn't want him tossing around at home such as blue soapy water or a mix of corn meal and pasta, etc. The problem I see with all that activity is that I can't keep up with it at home and I don't want him to expect me to keep him entertained all the time as they do there. Too bad he doesn't seem to be all that excited by things such as vaccuuming unless I'm watching him do it. He does like to "help" but that's not a very apt description of his participation. He's getting a bit better about entertaining himself though. For instance on Tuesday he spent about 30 minutes dismantling a Valentine card he received from Ben's mom. Destructive activies appear to be his favorites and our house often reflects that. He's also learned that he can drag the garbage can around the entire downstairs and use that to reach all the things that we've tried to put away over the past year or so. I think he's somewhat bored at home but I'm not sure how I can make it more interesting for him. As Lisa TV-VT says "I'm not a cruise director!"