Miss Linda's House

The gateway to Miss Linda's backyard; doesn't it look like the doorway to an enchanting world?

Anjali had another "First." She attended Merry Garden Preschool.

It is very important to me and Papi that I stay at home with Anjali as she's growing up, and we feel fortunate that it is financially easy for us to make this happen when so many nowadays struggle with two jobs. Also considering that we don't plan on sending her to school, and that I am not really looking for time without her, we hadn't thought about her attending something quite like this at such a young age ~ by herself without Mommy or Papi.

But Anjali is hungry for interaction with other children. Every single day what she wants to do is "go to the payground," so she can see the "people, girls, and boys." And since we haven't lived here that long, we haven't cultivated a community of parents and children with whom we feel comfortable making play-dates and socializing. This seems like a solution for now.

"Miss Linda" follows Waldorf guidelines, which for small children essentially means interacting with natural items as opposed to plastic, plenty of unstructured time for imaginative play, an environment free of techno-gadgets and electronic media, and a comforting daily rhythm. This feels really right to me and Papi. And Miss Linda's House is dreamy. The main place where the children play is the big backyard with mature shade trees, and many nooks and spaces to engage, explore, and pretend.

As soon as we walked through the garden gate for our interview, Anjali was warmly invited to play by another girl, and led off hand-in-hand. When we took her there for her first official stay, I explained that she would stay there and that we would come get her in a little while. She reiterated what she heard, saying, "I go by myself, you and Papi not go." She seemed to feel special ~ maybe grown-up ~ because of this. I signed the paperwork and then told her I was going bye bye, and asked her for a kiss. She was already engaged, so she waved me away, saying, "You go bye bye." We arrived to pick her up, and I found her taking turns swinging with another girl. I said hello, and she got a very serious look on her face, and hid behind a little fence. She didn't want to leave. She cried. When we told her that she'd get to go back again soon, she accepted that it was time to leave, but kept crying. She said bye to everyone she could see. I think it made her feel better to see that the other kids were leaving, too.