On the same wavelength

Perched on dolls' house-sized chairs, my husband and I sat at our daughters' desks for last night's meeting with the class teacher. Filled with adults, the room looked very small and much less play-oriented than the preschool we've been used to for the last two years.

We like the teacher and I've already shared several conversations with her at morning assembly or afternoon pick-up. I feel comfortable with her. She's been teaching long enough for her first students to be now in their mid-twenties. She and I are probably very close in age. She also seems to have standards like those of our family (clothes, behaviour, language) so I think our girls will be fine with her.

However, even more than these important factors, I'm really happy that she's on my wavelength educationally and particularly in the writing department.

Last night she said this: Even in Kindergarten I want the children to learn not just letters or words, but sentences. Sentences are very important. They should just say what you need to say and then finish. We all need to be able to make good sentences, all our life. So many adults don't even use sentences. When people write, even businesses and banks, sometimes what they write is just ramble and is very hard to understand. They need to learn how to write good sentences.

It was like music to my ears. Thumbnail is built on just such a premise. Fortunately many people still need help with making good sentences so the business prospects are good.

Coming together

Now Day 10 of Month 2, this year finally feels as though it is coming together. The children are at school and the husband at work. The ironing is (sort of) up to date and the dinner exists in my mind (if not in the kitchen at present). My work is starting to regulate after the stop-start of January, the insane heat of early February, the rush of suddenly urgent tasks that ought to have been done last month, the clients' general malaise throughout summer and their apparent reticence to pay invoices...

I'm working today, don't feel like I'm running against a giant, invisible clock, don't have a gnawing sense that there is something I've missed. I'm breathing out and settling in. 2011 is coming together. Prepositions abound.