My Baby Has Started School, Kind Of

August 12th, 2014 was a date of some significance in our family...and not just because it was Lorelai's birthday. On that same day, my "baby girl" Aurora had her first day of preschool! Wow...now all three of my kids are in school! At least some of the time.

Aurora had an informal co-op "play group" last school year. It was sort of/kind of a preschool on occasion (that is, when one of the moms decided to actually teach the kids something on their assigned day). However, the preschool this school year is definitely the real thing! In other words: it's run by someone with an actual college degree in education; it takes place in a "classroom" designed specifically for preschool; it has reading, writing, assignments, activities, and field trips involved; and she brings her own backpack and snack every day!

 

Aurora has been looking forward to preschool all summer. The last school year was pretty rough on her, what with her sisters being gone all day and Mom often proving an inadequate playmate. I'd argue that the youngest kid in the family needs preschool even more than its older siblings, if only for the needed social stimulation. Aurora has grown more and more social over the last few months, so this school experience was desperately needed!

Aurora will be attending Smart Scholars Preschool, the same preschool Celeste attended a couple of years ago. Ms. Nichole, who runs the preschool, was happy to welcome Aurora to the class (even if she kept calling her "Celeste" by accident for the first couple of days, hee hee!). Aurora was so excited that her "turn" had come; she already knew Ms. Nichole from Celeste's preschool days and she was overjoyed to be her newest student. Besides that, a few of her friends (Taylor and Logan) would also be part of the preschool, and she was excited to share the school experience with them as well.

The first week of preschool went really well; I think Aurora will soon adjust to the schedule. Every day, as soon as preschool was over, the first thing out of her mouth was always, "Mom, I want a play-date today!" She was always frustrated when I told her we couldn't that day. Hmmm...perhaps she is getting too much stimulation at the school, and will need to appreciate her down-time a little more. However, she also fell asleep very quickly every night after preschool...I suspect it wore her out a little more than she was willing to admit.

Hopefully I'll have some fun crafts & activities to report on from preschool this year; stay tuned! And as for myself: who knows?? I sure hope I can figure out how to productively spend my time now that most of my kids are out of the house. That will probably be a work in progress.