Whew! I made it

Better late than never, eh?

Today Audrey had an open house in her class. Elliott had his on Thursday and I went to both. I'm not sure which one I liked better.

When I went to Elliott's class, the teacher was reading to them about medieval weaponry. Cool. Maces, armour, lances, swords, trebuchets and catapults. Then she handed out some sheets to the children, told them to find their parents and build what was on the sheets. We were asked to make a catapult. Who-what-now? The things we were to use were some milk cartons, plastic spoons, twigs, and elastic bands. Oh my God. They sure snagged the wrong parent for this task. In case you didn't know, Scott's an engineer. Eep.

So Elliott and I did our best but to be honest it was a pretty lame effort. Our ping pong ball only flew an inch but at least I didn't completely humiliate myself. Besides, it was fun chatting with other parents and mixing with the other kids informally.

Audrey's class was different. The parents pretty much just sat like students at the back of the class and spied on the kids during a lesson. The teacher read a story and explained to them about how a story is constructed using an introduction, body and conclusion. She asked questions and the children raised their hands to answer and they rarely left their seats. Huh. Actually I kinda liked it. It was a neat window into her day. But nothing special for the parents and no mingling. And I'm a real mingler. No kidding.

So here we have two different teaching styles and interestingly enough, they're perfect for each child. Elliott's a doer and Audrey's a learner. I'm glad I got to see the classes this week and check out where the kids spend the bulk of the day. Even though I had to build a milk carton catapult. And can I just mention that they go to french immersion school and everything the whole time was conducted in french? I'm proud to say that even though my french is rusty it's still at the grade 4 level. Good for me.

kxx