A beautiful fall day..
"Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it."
Samuel Johnson (2709-1784)
01. A Delightful Friday Morning.
The Montessori School in Baltimore County celebrated Grandparents' Day and Elaine and I attended. Elaine's granddaughter, Lily, and grandson, Luka, are students there. The last Grandparents' Day I was involved in, was when my granddaughters, Heather and Danielle were in Elementary School. This one was quite different.
We arrived just five minutes too late to partake of the offered "breakfast".. but, we were on time to hear the headmistress discuss things, such as how this school got started, what its future will be, and how the grandparents will be able to help... (stand by for the donation letter).. This headmistress was quite different from those depicted in Disney movies. Very well spoken. Obviously quite intelligent and well organized.
Grandparents were in attendance from all over the world.. Iceland, Denmark, South Africa, Canada, and a few other places. Of course, Maryland and bordering States housed many of those in attendance. I did not see anyone in dungarees or shorts. A classy clientele indeed.
We were not able to get the wheelchair up to Lily's class, but we were able to easily get to Luka's class. I think the teacher's name was Miss Emily. We were greeted at the door in Spanish and English. Nice. These are the ages when young minds pick up languages easily. I hope they keep that up for other classes, and maybe throw in some French as well.
Luka spotted his grandmother immediately and his face was bright as the sun. He had three badges that he had made for us. He signed one of them himself. We wore them proudly the rest of the day.
Luka showed us how well he can stack blocks of different sizes. He showed us all kinds of learning things. At one point, he did the following:
He picked up a yellow tray from a shelf and brought it over to a table.
He unfurled a yellow table rug to put under the tray.
He picked up a small jar from the tray and went away somewhere and came back with it full of water.
He poured some of the water into a small vase. (without spilling any of it!)
He picked up a small bunch of flowers from the tray and trimmed them with a pair of scissors. (neatly)
He took the trimmed flowers and placed them into the vase of water.
Afterwards, he cleaned everything up .. also neatly.
Now... tell me how many three year olds could do all of that without spilling a drop or knocking everything on the floor. Or even retaining interest long enough to complete the task.
We had an hour in Luka's class room and ten minutes before leaving, the teachers got out guitars and had the kids all sing in Spanish. The song was kind of like Old McDonald's Farm.. with the kids being able to do some animal sounds. Very impressive.
When our time was up, we headed back to the Gym for some more singing. First, we heard from some of the higher graded kids, "singing" .... well, I wouldn't really call it that.. in line with the Montessori ideal of personal differences.. each of these kids appeared to be singing a different song.. the only thing the same was that it was a song about "the world".. and I'm sure, if my hearing aid was working right, it would have been about "peace in the world."
But, after that things began to look up.. a 9 or 10 year old pianist ably accompanied all of the other, younger kids in songs with recognizable lyrics and melodies. Very nice. Lily and Luka were in this group and Elaine got a couple of nice pictures.
We got to see Francine and Neal, who had been able to visit Lily's classroom.
After saying goodbye to all these beautiful kids, we went through the Book Fair. I couldn't resist, and bought a book about caves and tunnels, a book of crockpot recipes and a large book about the Holocaust. Elaine bought a book for Lily (birthday gift I guess) and a Spanish book, that she bought and then donated to Luka's class.
All in all... a wonderful experience in a beautiful setting. The next Grandparents' Day is in May 2015 and Elaine is already planning to attend.
2. Pot of Gold (Well, actually Pea Soup)
After our Montessori adventure, we decided to try to find the Suburban House, a famous Baltimore County delicatessen that has moved around from time to time. We were anxious to once more experience its remarkable pea soup and perhaps a Kosher hotdog.
We searched through those places where it had been located.. with no luck. So, discouraged, we headed for home.. just as we hit the Beltway, I saw a sign.. Suburban House Restaurant.. this way.
Yes.. it found us.
We each had the biggest bowl of pea soup ever made, followed by one of their famous Kosher dogs, mine with baloney, of course (actually, it was National Baloney Day, believe it or not).. Their cole slaw on the side is not your mother's cole slaw. The only bad feature was that the Kosher pickle on the side had lost its Kosher taste. But, we really enjoyed pigging out on the great food and with our normally chubby bellies bursting with even more chubbiness, we wallowed home to lay down and sleep it all off.
A Marvelous Day!
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