So, as I mentioned earlier, Bella has been doing great at camp. She's been roundly praised by her teachers as being social, outgoing, and attentive. Didn't cry once. She's been sleeping well too, with the aid of a couple Teletubby dolls, which is especially impressive to me as she's in new digs with strangers. I'm also convinced camp has boosted her development: she's acting more like a kid and less like a baby. She's drinking fewer bottles (babas), eating a bag lunch by herself - you should see her mix the wasabi, ginger, and soy with chopsticks (kidding) -, going to sleep earlier. Last night she slept through, which she hasn't done in 3 or 4 months. Usually she wakes up crying at about 3 a.m. and asks for a bottle, which I prepare and bring to her. Other times she'll wake up, get out of bed, amble down the hallway, and throw open our door like a gunslinger with a blanky entering a saloon, and hop into bed with us. A few times I've woken up in the dead of night to see her face an inch from mine as she stood next to our bed. Freaky.

But I digress. Camp is great because the kids are actively exploring Prospect Park. Bella's 2s group is called "The Wanderers" which makes me chuckle because that's the name of a seminal 1979 movie about an Italian gang in the Bronx in the early 1960s . Her first street gang. They go swimming. They go to the Botanical Garden. They go to the Zoo. Today they went to the Audubon Center and learned about the bugs and worms that live in the soil.

I got a chance today to speak with Jennifer Smith, the director of the camp, and the author of its curriculum.

"I have always worked in early childhood education," said Smith, who taught previously in housing projects in Washington D.C., and at theEthical Culture Fieldston School, in Riverdale. "A few years ago I took a break to help a friend open a wine store, but I needed to be creative and I couldn't be creative doing the books. I was bored out of my mind. The curriculum during the summer is really different from the usual school year. In the summer we have kids from all over for a short amount of time. In the school year the curriculum is more child-led," she said, referring to Maple Street's philosophy of tailoring subject matter to its childrens' interests. "The summer camp is for a limited time so its fun to go with a theme. Kids over the last few years have been into pirates and spies, so we set those themes for this summer. We stress recycling so we do art projects with recycled materials, we do an 'Earth Week.'" Smith stressed some key words: "Outside, fun, water, walking. As much nature as possible. I grew up in the country so I try to pretend we're there."

I'm enrolling.