Justin and I recently made the decision to start Aubrey in preschool and boy has it been a change for us! We have two weeks under our belts and I think it’s safe to say that we are all adjusting fairly well. It has been a big change for all of us and some days are more challenging than others, but I think it’s all been for the good.
We’ve been looking at daycares/preschools off and on since before Aubrey was born; always toying with the idea of whether or not to put her in but nowhere every seemed good enough. I just couldn’t imagine leaving my baby anywhere with strangers.
Like I said, we recently decided it would be best for us to finally put her in at least part time. So again we searched and searched all around town for somewhere that we felt comfortable leaving her at and somewhere that we could afford. Well as luck would have it, we just did not like anywhere around our neighborhood and ultimately it led us to the decision that we would be willing to drive a little further if it meant we felt more comfortable leaving Aubrey there. So we expanded our search area and kept looking and still no luck.
Oddly enough, I was at a health insurance meeting for work and while we were eating lunch one of the reps and I were talking about our kids and I was telling her my dilemma. She said she had just recently went through the same problem and she ended up taking her son to Kids Castle and she LOVED it. She told me more about it and it sounded wonderful, so we decided to go check it out the next day along with a few others on our list.
We checked it out and we really liked it! We liked the director and the lead teacher in the “Older One’s” room which is where Aubrey would be. Each classroom has a curriculum that they follow which helps to develop the kids, they send home reports everyday about your child’s day (i.e. what they ate, when they were changed, what it was, their mood, activities, etc.), they have home cooked meals and they are a Christian based school so they learn about God and say Grace before they eat. We enrolled her right away and started her that following Monday.
Aubrey has done really well adjusting so far and we couldn’t be prouder. The first day was definitely the hardest…actually it was probably the hardest for me. Aubrey cried when we dropped her off just as we had expected; they had recommended that we sit there with her for a few minutes to let her get used to the place. So we sat there for a few minutes before deciding that it would actually be easier on her if we just left. So we kissed her and walked out of the room and the tears poured uncontrollably down my face. The director let us watch her on the camera and she was already done crying. She said we could sit there until we were ready to leave. We left right away because my steady stream of tears was about to burst into a waterfall if I stood there any longer. I cried almost all the way to work.
Being the nervous nelly that I am, I called half way through the day to see how she was doing and was relieved to find out she was having a great day. Phew. The next few days went much the same for me but Aubrey had a harder time and we received notes on her reports saying, “Aubrey was emotional today and missed her Mom & Dad.” It broke my heart. However, the second week went much better and she had great days again which is a total relief.
While Aubrey is doing well (knock on wood) we have had a few incidents with other kids already. She got bit twice by two other kids. 
Since starting preschool, we have already seen tremendous changes in Aubrey. She cleans up after herself, she says ‘thank you’ all the time (I think it’s her new favorite word) and she is eating better at the table. We have our first of many art pieces hanging on the wall at home too! August is ‘All About Me’ month, so the kids had their body traced and measured and sent home. It’s awesome! Every week they will be doing art projects and cooking projects…this week Justin and I are jealous because the cooking project is ‘Sandwich on a stick.’ How awesome does that sound?
Love,
Justin, Candice & Aubrey
Aubrey On Her First Day of Preschool
No comments:
Post a Comment