First Day of School - 8/29/12

Holly is such a big girl now!  These are pictures from her first day of school this year.  She is at the same preschool but now she is in the full inclusion program.  That means she has a much bigger class with 24 kids and a new teacher.  She was excited and ready to go.  Tan from the last month of summer spent swimming every day, and wearing her closed toed shoes she had her back pack ready with her Mac and Cheese for lunch and a few comfort items "Just In Case"

Out the door, down the stairs, into the car and as a special treat both Mommy and Daddy would take her to school.  Her class is on the other side of the school now in the back but we found it.  Holly had met her teacher over the summer and spent a few sessions visiting her class to get ready.

Lots of kids were already there when we arrived including a friend from last year, Nate.  Her teacher showed her to the dramatic play area, as dress-up is one of her favorite things and she was off and ready to go.  We said good bye and she didn't even think twice about it.  its only been about a year and a half since her very first day of school, just after her third birthday and man this couldn't have been more different.  She is a big girl now. 

It took a while but 3 months in and she knows every child in her class, notices who is missing when someone is absent.  Knows all her Upper Case Letters and only mixed up i/l and b/d in lower case.  She even recognized all her numbers up to 19 She knows her shapes and her colors.  She loves circle time and sharing her weekly "letter" back pack.  She even answers story time questions and asks them too.  She is still working on expanding her circle of friends and is most comfortable just playing with one person at a time, and she is still working on her table top activities, she doesn't want to miss anything so she rushes through them to make sure she gets a chance to do every single one, so she is learning to slow down and take her time.

This week she even dealt with her first Bullying issue, she told Mommy about it casually, and then said she didn't want to talk about it, but Mommy got the details and talked to the teacher.  A little girl pushed her and then Holly got Mad and another little girl hit her.  But she actually dealt with it on her own, decided to play in another area with a different friend.  Its hard to know what really happened or why, but we are working on having her tell a teacher when something like that happens so they can facilitate communication and get to the bottom of things.

She had her first heart break when her favorite friend told her he didn't want to play with her "Right Now" which she of course couldn't understand why.  But after a few minutes and help from the teacher she found a new friend who did want to play the same thing as she did right then.  And of course later she and the first friend were playing something else all together happily when he was done with the previous activity.

She has a very rigid routine and wants to know what is on the agenda every day.  She dresses herself in the morning for school and tells Daddy knock knock jokes on the ride in.  She has free play and circle and outside time, on certain days she plays with the SLP or the OT, she has table time and lunch and more outside time and then after nap time has started she patiently waits for Mommy to pick her up.

Today I told her I would be picking her up early later in the week and she got upset because all the times in class are her favorite and she told me she didn't want to miss anything so I would have to wait and pick her up after Nap time started.  She loves school and I can't believe its already time for me to begin to tour Kindergarten's, next year her first day will be at a whole new school, I think she is ready But of course the worry wort that I am I am scared for her, but she is brave and strong and she is outgoing and loves to make friends and I know she will do great.  I mean really look how far she has come already!