Tomorrow is Isabella's first day of preschool. That's her school bag over there. The school provides a canvas bag to each student, which must have their name on the outside. Apparently, parents go all-out decorating the bags in which students take their art projects home. This caused me a mild panic attack since I have zero artistic ability. I went to Michael's and bought a bunch of iron-on letters and ladybugs and made the best of it.She will attend her semi-cooperative preschool Tuesday and Thursday mornings from 9am-12pm, although tomorrow is just a half day (from 9am-10:30am). She'll play in her classroom, and I'll be in an informational meeting with the other parents in a separate room. We met her teacher together on Tuesday morning, and Isabella had the chance to explore her room for the first time since the open house we attended together back in January.
Her class will have eight students in it, 5 boys and 3 girls. The preschool is comprised of three separate but connected rooms (the Housekeeping room, which includes kitchen toys, a LEGO table, a water table, a sand table, and a reading seat, the Big Muscle room, which includes a playset, slide, huge wooden blocks, trucks, and tumbling mats, and the Art room, which has art tables, easels, and all the art supplies mama's afraid to pull out at home because of...um...the mess. I know. I'm awful). She'll spend 1/3 of the year with the Housekeeping room as her "homeroom," 1/3 in the Big Muscle room, and 1/3 in the Art room. For 30-45 minutes each day, students can travel from their homerooms to explore and play in the other rooms.
In many ways, I am so ready for Isabella to go to preschool. I love her to bits, but she is so challenging lately. She is having a hard time listening and following directions, and when she doesn't get her way, she has a meltdown. She's always been stubborn and strong-willed. She is my daughter after all. But since turning three, a whole new kind of crazy behavior has emerged. If my plans don't coincide with hers, if she doesn't like the socks I picked out or what I'm serving for her snack, or she wants to turn left on a walk instead of right, look out. Hell hath no fury like a preschooler scorned.
I'm hoping that she'll learn to take direction from someone other than the hubs and me. I'm hoping she learns about patience (I'm not exactly the best model for this at home), and I'm hoping she will gain confidence and independence. She often wants to do everything for herself (the source of some battles lately at home), but in social settings she's often looking for me to stand right beside her. I know this is normal behavior for a child who hasn't been in daycare or left with anyone other than a relative, but I also know that separating well is an important life skill she needs to have.
Okay, now that I've gotten the positive aspects of Isabella heading to preschool out of the way...
My BABY is going to PRESCHOOL!!!!!!!
Didn't she look like this just yesterday?
Will she completely freak when it's time for me to leave her in her classroom?
Will I completely freak when it's time for me to leave her in her classroom?
Stay tuned.
(Sasha shared this on FB, and I just finished crying. It's just two days a week, for three hours at a time, but it's the beginning of the letting go, isn't it?)
I hope she has a wonderful time and you are both able to enjoy it! Neither of us cried for Little Elvis' first day. I think it could be a boy thing, though.
Little Elvis also had to have a special bag, but we had to pay for them to put on the name so they would all be identical.
It is hard to let go. I totally get that. Still, eventually, I bet you will love that time. Maybe it's not such a bad thing to let the twins have their longer nap in the mornings--then you could have some almost alone time.
I love sometimes when I get this little flash as I'm yelling at my kids about how they need to be more patient--irony. :-) I'm afraid my kids will have to learn patience somewhere besides home as well.
I bet she will love school. She's a natural leader.
I bet that school will be the best thing for both of you! Exciting but crazy to think she's already there.
And as an aside: holy cow is that one gigantic bag!
She'll do great, and you'll be fine. She's SO ready! And, FYI, kids typically behave better for "teacher" than they do for "mom". At least that's been my experience and what I've been told. I can't wait to hear all about it. Woo hoo!
She'll do so well!
Our experience (as Lis states) with our oldest is he behaves much better for the teachers than us. When they told us what a great boy he is, Hubs joked "what child did we drop off?"
Preschool is great for getting children used to other authority figures, especially in a group setting.
Exciting times!
Good luck to both of you :)
She is going to love it. You are going to cry for about 10 minutes, then whoop and do the happy dance for about an hour. Then you're going to feel guilty for having done the happy dance for that long. Then you're going to miss her.
Then she's going to come home, with stars in her eyes about the great time that she had, and tell mommy all about it -and you are going to know that you're doing the right thing.
About two weeks of this will go by and then you're probably going to wonder if she can go more often. (Both because you could use the break AND because she loves it so much).
She's going to have a great time!
And I bet you'll enjoy the time too!
Good luck!
Aww! That article made me teary, too ~ especially because Meredith is at preschool right at this very minute! I looked at baby pictures of her the other day and just couldn't believe it. Was she really that tiny? Good luck to Isabella. I have to do "All About Me" posters for the kids for preschool, and lots of parents have BEAUTIFUL artwork! They really do go all out for it!
She is going to LOVE it.
And you are going to LOVE it even more! Once you get over the guilt of LOVING it so much. ;-)