Lilly's 1st Day of Preschool

About a month ago my girlfriend and I decided that it was time for our kids to get a little more social interaction with children their own age, so we decided to put them in preschool. The school we decided on had the option to either put them in full-time or part-time. Since we're both first time parents we decided we weren't ready to give them up all day 5 days a week, so we opted for the part-time version of Tuesday & Thursday preschool.

So today was my little girl's first day of preschool! She has been asking for several weeks when she was going to start school. Last night when I was putting her to bed she was so excited that I wondered if she would ever get to sleep--luckily she did!

Our day started early this morning so that she could get everything done in time for us to be at her school a little before 8:30 a.m. Right when I woke her up she was talking about how excited she was to go to preschool today. First thing she did was to feed her new fish. Then it was on to the normal grind of drinking her milk, taking a vitamin, and then eating her breakfast. She didn't finish her breakfast at home because I think she was a little too excited...lol.

So since breakfast was slow going we decided to put it off to the side for a little bit and brush her teeth. Then she had to hurry up and get dressed for school. Once she got dressed and I fixed her hair, I got her loaded up into the truck and we were off! She finished her breakfast in the truck :-)

Once we got there she had a couple of minutes to see her friends before they went off to their different classrooms. When we got inside her classroom we were able to meet her two new teachers where all the parents were able to stay for about the first 45 minutes and get to know the teachers and get an understanding of what was going to be going on throughout the year. After the little meet and greet the children and parents were allowed to roam around the room and play.

Then came the time for the parents to leave to go to the parent orientation. There were some kids that didn't want to let their parents go, and then there were others--like my daughter--who, after they received their hug and kiss, were like "bye mom!" I had a feeling that my daughter would be one of those that just said bye and didn't get upset--she's pretty independent so it was no big surprise.

During the parents' orientation the preschool director explained all about how the preschool operated--class schedules, fundraisers, rules, etc. My girlfriend and I had to laugh when the director started talking about attendance and tardiness. She explained that if your child is late they would have to sit outside the classroom and wait until the morning circle time was over so as to not disrupt the students and teachers that had arrived on time (and not to lose the kids' focus). The reason we wanted to bust out laughing is because there is a mom with twins that is notoriously late on library day every week and of course she and her kids were late on the first day of class.

After orientation I went home for a couple of hours then it was time to go back and pick up my little girl. I really liked how they released the children from class--one at a time and only after the parent has signed the child out. No opening the door and a dozen 3 year olds running out trying to find their mom or dad.

When she got out of the classroom she began to tell me all about her day....somewhat! Sometimes it's like trying to pry information out of a spy! She told me that they played inside, then sang some songs, went outside on the playground with the other preschool class, then came inside and had some story time before it was time to go. As each of the children left they were given a banana for a snack and a little postcard from the teachers expressing their excitement to have them in their class.

We decided to stop and have lunch with her friends after school, and then it was time to go home for a nap. She had a great first day and is so excited to go back on Thursday!