First Day of PreSchool

Well many of you probably know that our kids have been going to daycare full time pretty much their whole lives.  As the oldest, Sawyer went the longest, starting when she was 3.5 months and continuing till this past May when Margot was born.  While she's had a good summer off at home and we've done lots of fun stuff as a family, this girl was really excited to get back to school. Real school this time.  Since we knew with three kids daycare was no longer the right choice for us, we signed Sawyer up for Pre-K through our school district.  At first I was slightly overwhelmed with all my options - Catholic schools, a gifted school, the school district program, and even whether to request special approval from the superintendent to go to Kindergarten early since our cutoff is Sept 1, which she misses by 25 days.

I went for the district since that's where we intend for her to do elementary school and the path of least resistance to not skip Pre-K, and after our visit day yesterday feel great about our choice.  There are several kids in Sawyer's class who have September birthdays, and for a 15-16 kid class there is one teacher and two full time assistants who all seemed wonderful.  So, the whole family went over to Sawyer's school yesterday for a little visit.  Her classroom itself is super nice, she has a friend from daycare in her class, and her teachers were wonderful...one of them even grabbed Margot for a bit to get some baby love in.  Poor Isla loved it so much too that I feel bad she's not yet old enough for 3 year old preschool.  When the teacher took Sawyer off to get a picture Isla yelled after her, "Do you want my picture too?"  We will definitely be signing her up to do two years of preschool starting next year.

At any rate, today was the big start day.  Sawyer goes Tuesday thru Friday in the afternoons.  Last night she picked our her outfit, and got herself all ready today.  Mark said she was asking all morning whether it was time to go to school.  She did allow me to take two quick pictures before they left.

I stayed home with Isla and Margot while Mark drove her over.  He said that she didn't even really say goodbye, just walked right on into the school when they opened the doors (parents don't walk them inside). No hug or anything.  I'm so proud of her because on Monday she was a bit shy meeting her teacher, but I'm guessing that was because we were around.  It's crazy because despite taking my kids to daycare all these years, I've been excited for her all day myself.  I know she's going to love it and I can't wait till we have dinner tonight to hear all about it.

I hope it will be good for Isla to get some one on one time as well.  She's grown up a lot lately though as our most emotional child (so far) she will probably benefit from some focused attention, and a chance to think a bit more independently from Sawyer.  Lately we hear a lot of "I need to talk" from her, but she often doesn't know what to say after that so maybe this time apart from Sawyer will let her find her voice a bit more.

 Here she is riding her bike in the garage while Mark was out taking Sawyer.

And just because I love this girl so, I found this picture on my phone from this weekend and thought I'd post it.  I was reorganizing Margot's clothes for Fall and came across this little winter hat that I bought for Isla when I went to Dublin.  Her head needs to grow a bit more but I just love how happy she is.