Riley and Avery

Riley had her evaluation at school today. I dropped her off at school, went to get coffee at Borders, and came back around 10am to watch her do some of her activities. The teachers are really impressed with her fine motor skills, and how she has always held a pencil (or crayon or whatever) properly. The teacher did several number activities with her so that I could watch her work. Then Riley went into circle for her French lesson while I went into the office to speak with her teacher. The teacher said that she was really surprised when she looked at Riley's date of birth, and realized that she is the youngest in the school, because Riley is doing really really well and is rather advanced in her math. So I guess she's one of the artistic/mathematical minded children. They said that they don't really do much reading in the first year, focusing instead on practical life and numbers, but she is almost done with her first math card, and most of the first year students don't even have a math card. I'll have to emphasize the math stuff since she's interested in it. I've always been more language oriented myself. The teacher had no areas of concern for Riley, it was really a good report. The only thing she said is that she talks really quietly at school, and that she thinks that Riley can count to 20, she just can't hear her. She said that she has to put her ear right to Riley's mouth when she talks. What? If it were only like that at home!

Now, I really like this teacher, and she told me that she is probably not coming back next year. She is going to try to open her own Montessori school on the Northeast side of town (that's us) in an established Montessori school. I think I visited this school before enrolling Riley at Golden Mountain, and they never called me back (maybe because they're in transition?). But now I'm conflicted because I really like Golden Mountain, but this other school is about 4 miles away from us. I drive for almost two hours a day on Riley's school days, drop her off, go home, pick her up, go home. And if she's going five days a week next year, that's *gasp* 10 hours of driving per week. And with gas prices as they are, it's going to kill us. But I really really like Golden Mountain...ugh, so now I don't know. And when I was at a NINO meeting, we were talking about the area schools and I mentioned that Riley is in a Montessori preschool, and the leader asked which one, and I told her and she said that Golden Mountain is an excellent school, and the only one that she would consider sending her kids to (she's a homeschooler). I know it's a good school, but it's nice to know that they have a stellar reputation. Oh, decisions...

I've been meaning to document this conversation that I had with Riley. It occured while I was trying in vain to get the girls to bed. Riley was tired and laying down, but Avery was sitting up and bothering Riley. Normally in this situation, I close my eyes and pretend to be asleep, and usually Avery catches on. But Riley was bothered:
Riley: Mom, Avery's not sleeping!
Me: Just ignore her and she'll lay down.
Riley: What is "ignore?"
Me: To ignore someone means that you pretend that you can't see or hear them.
Riley: (in a loud voice) AVERY, I CAN'T SEE YOU! I CAN'T HEAR YOU AVERY! AVERY, I'M IGNORING YOU!
So she didn't quite get the point. But we tried, and it was funny.