island hopping

In the hopes of expanding Finn's social circle (you know, considering there are SIX in his class), we've gone over to our neighboring island, North Haven, for the past two weeks.
The first time was to go to Kindermusik, which happens for an hour on Thursday mornings.
The second time was to attend a preschool for 18 month-3 year-olds for 3 & 1/2 hours on Friday mornings.
Now, for those of you unfamiliar to island life, island hopping is a pretty regular thing around here. Many people have their own boats to get from one side to another, and if you don't have your own boat (like me), you can call a water taxi to come and fetch you - from a real pay phone, even! This happens daily as there are at least two teachers who live on Vinalhaven but work on North Haven. The water taxi is a skiff that comes tearing across the thoroughfare in about 3 minutes. If we're lucky, Foy will be driving, which means he's very considerate of small people who may not take too kindly to the wind and noise the boat makes, so the return journey takes more like 5 minutes.

So - not your average commute, but, in my opinion, much better than taking a subway.

I have to say, I'm a big, big fan of going over to North Haven. They have a lovely community center where the preschool is and a lovely little waterfront community. I have to say, the three hours I spent there last Friday while Finn was playing happily in the next room were some of my favorites during the week.

Normally, I drop Finn off at daycare and don't get to see him interact with the staff or the other kids. At Waterman's (where the class is called "Little Urchins" - does it get cuter than that?), I could hear his interactions the whole time (and watch as the staff members ran with the kids to look out the window and look at the big trucks driving by). No, I wasn't that crazy stalk-y mom watching her kid the whole time, but while I drank my hot chocolate and chatted with friends, it was nice to hear my kiddo having a blast getting to know a new place and new people. That kid is a wicked socialite.

We'll be headed back over again this Friday, but not again until at least March because I'm going to be taking over as French teacher for a while as the permanent teacher goes on maternity leave.
Oh yeah, here's a funny story: Two years ago, I was the long term French sub while the teacher went on maternity leave and I was also pregnant at the time.  This time? Same deal.
It's a great school, though, and an amazing community of teachers who I'm happy to work with for a while. There's a lot more to talk about on this topic, so I'll leave it for another post.  Til then, hope you're all having a simply lovely week.