AJ and I walked to his school for orientation today. We are back in the same classroom with the same teachers and some of the same classmates he had two years ago. It was impossible not to make comparisons to that first day, which of course made me feel all weepy about how fast AJ's growing up. It�s hard to believe that next year at this time he�ll be in kindergarten.

AJ himself is excited about a couple of new aspects to the four-year-old class. First, they get homework (if only he�d stay this excited about homework!). Then, they get some field trips. If only AJ got to go to school on a big yellow bus, he�d be perfectly happy.

AJ has continued his fascination with hurricanes. Tonight we read his current favorite book, The Magic Schoolbus Inside a Hurricane. He�s been reading this one by himself, so I hadn�t actually read the whole thing until tonight. I was startled to find that it listed the most devastating hurricane as being in 1900 with 6,000 lives lost. But, it went on to say, that wouldn�t happen now because we can predict hurricanes with much greater accuracy and evacuate people before the storms hit.

If only that were enough. Clearly the Magic School Bus was written in the pre-Bush era.

Tragic inaccuracies aside, the book is full of wonderful looking and fairly simple science experiments that AJ and I plan to try tomorrow with objects we should have lying around the house. It�s moments like this where I think Rudolph Steiner�s educational philosophies make a lot of sense (he�s the one who�s behind the Waldorf School�s child-directed learning). When AJ�s interested in something, we do it until he�s tired of it and then we move on to something else. It�s a great way to learn things for someone who is as inquisitive about the world as AJ (and probably most kids his age). I hope he doesn�t lose his spontaneous love of learning when he hits the public schools next year.

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