Jagnos ir Jędrzejo mama Ewa, žurnalistė, fotografė (atsiliepimo tekstas angliškai)
I remember the day I became a lioness, I looked at my newborn first child and knew I could kill if anyone tried to hurt them. And you have to know that I previously thought of myself as a poodle – someone who barks quietly, and when it comes to something, hides in the crowd.
So turning into a lioness surprised me. And what's more, that it was not an illusion resulting from a concert of hormones played to every woman in the maternity ward. For myself, it's a fact, I sometimes become a mouse, a poor kitten or a hedgehog run over on the highway, but for my children, I'm a lioness always.
More than 4 years ago we came to Vilnius with the decision that if we find a suitable nursery for our daughter, we will live here a while. Appropriate or which one?
For me (and my husband – fortunately we're here like two unicorns when asked to answer a favorite color) it was obvious. We took a tour of Vilnius kindergartens with a list of questions.
Do kids go out every day? (And since we did our casting in the winter, at -15 degrees and mountains of snow, it was immediately visible whether the snow was trampled on by the kindergarten buildings or they were slammed.)
Does preschool have English or math classes? (We didn't want this type of facility!!) We cared about a place where children could play freely without adults interference.
Do they watch cartoons?
Do they have play plastic toys? (We preferred the sticks and stones.)
Are there penalties and rewards? (Yeah yeah it’s the same category. We didn't want neither.)
Can they roll around in the mud and lie on their stomach and watch ants? (Job!)
Can adaptation last long until the child is ready to be left alone? (NOBODY tell me it's okay for parents to molest a crying baby.)
Aren't the child forced to eat?
Do teachers use idiotic posts like "what a pretty girl", "what a bad boy", "don't cry, it's okay", "don' t scream because Mommy will be sad" (how to check? I assure you that it is enough to watch from behind the fence ladies and children on the playground. Usually after 15 minutes everything is clear.)
Oh well. I could do this for a long time. And I’m writing this only to thank the preschool we chose for our daughter, and then our son, „Karalių pasaka“ – The Tale of Kings. A Waldorf Kindergarten.
We lived in Lithuania for the last four years mainly because we found this place and knew that our children were peaceful and happy there. That I don't have to be a vigilant lioness, because my young ones are in good hands. They lie on trees (sometimes they fall, but it's probably better than if they were afraid to try and climb), they watch snails, get to know the taste of rabbit cabbage and fresh snow, they make warm wax figurines, and sow grain.
The zero at the Waldorf kindergarten looked like these children were given more responsible and difficult tasks: they sewed bags, embroidered, weaved, sanded, cut. There were no notebooks, writing letters, numbers and traces, and yet in every school we considered for our daughter (when it comes to choosing a school, I'm a lioness too, of course, but that's a different subject) our daughter had absolutely no problems doing tasks that children from "normal" (discussion issue) kindergartens did.
Thank you very much, dear teachers, for evenings of Lithuanian traditional songs while pouring candles, for holidays organized in the fields, for hikes with lanterns in the dark forest, meetings over a cup of herbal tea, rituals, ceremonies, peace.
And if anyone in Vilnius has children of preschool age, I recommend „Karalių pasaka“ in Lazdynėliai. You'll see that it can be done differently.
Laiminguo!
