Told you so.

With the onset of Infant-Toddler classes, I have become much more occupied with assignments, typing up notes, and lots of reading and studying. Hence, the lack of daily postings. But I will try and catch up, at least once a week.

To summarize my feelings about the class so far... I'm loving it. We are starting out focusing on infants (though talk of toddlers always seems to come up as well), and it's just fascinating. I never knew what huge amount of development goes on just in utero, and how MUCH the newborn is already capable of doing and experiencing. The environment it is born into is SO important; of course the planner in me is already worrying about that for when Toby and I have our own children! But we won't get into that.

Our class is about 15 students, with 5 more joining us for the second half of the program (they split the training up into two summers). It's a nice size; small enough to feel like a discussion group, but not so small that I feel a lot of pressure to always contribute something. Over the next few weeks, we will get to go observe at the Burke Center a couple times, and one of our instructors has organized a trip to the NICU in White Plains.

We also will get to see actual children tomorrow, so I am looking forward to that! I miss the children at my school, and keep wondering how they're doing and everything! (Anyone want to take some pictures of them for me? So I'll still recognize them in August? :) Anyway, we have a few infants coming in (with their parents) so we can observe them in our environment. We're supposed to pay attention to what each infant is focusing on, and for how long, so we can learn not to interrupt a child's concentration (even as an infant).

In non-academic news, I spent the day in NYC on Saturday! We took the train in, walked around Times Square, Rockefeller Center, explored the Metropolitan Museum of Art, relaxed in Central Park, and I split off to spend some time with my cousin, Joachim. We had smoothies in Bryant Park and just caught up on each others' lives until yet another downpour ensued. Then I met up with a new friend from the program, and we grabbed a quick dinner at a Turkish restaurant in the Theater District and saw Mary Poppins! Awesome set design and choreography. Then we caught the train back to New Rochelle, and I slept really really well.

Anyway, I have to run for a full day of classes (including an extra lab this evening), so I'll leave you with some quotes.

“Be flexible… ‘cause you never know what’s gonna happen.” (Concerning interactions with infants and toddlers)

“Children reach with their eyes before they reach with their hands.” (Talking about infants' focus and attention)

"It's not so much what you do, but how you do it."