Starting School

For Mia, starting school has been just what she needed. She’s so very social and amiable and we had hoped this would only help her thrive - and we think it has.  She has made many new friends and she’s been learning so much it blows our minds.  She comes home singing all kinds of songs, she’s learned and memorized passages, she’s recognizing her letters and numbers and she’s even learned some sign language!  She loves her music class and is always singing new songs; and she’ll come home doing yoga, among other things, showing us all she’s learned from that day.  Lol yoga.  She loves her playgrounds.  They have a few that they alternate between so they never get bored.  They also have a fleet of trikes that they bring out some days that the kids can ride around the track there.  And her schoolwork/homework cubby is always full of the fun work that she’s done that day.

But perhaps the most important thing for is the social aspect.  A lot of my friends and family are teachers and they all say the best thing any Kindergartener can have is social readiness.  The maturity to be there and be receptive to learning is the most important thing.  And we think our monkey is coming along just fine.  Each day she’s excited to go - she loves school.  She has a ritual every morning where she asks me, while I’m making breakfast, to read her the lunch menu for that day so she knows what to expect.  She’s very much into time now.  She always wants to know what month and day it is.  Then she tells me how many more days are left in the week and therefore how many more days until Saturday and Sunday, her “days off”.  She’s a funny little monkey.

We love her school, as well.  They’re very involved, structured and most importantly, nurturing.  The class sizes are small, they’re very clean, very secure and they’re prepared for anything that could or might happen.  They practice writing and pre-reading every day and they prepare the kids for Kindergarten and strive to exceed state standards.  They do a lot of fun activities and have a lot of fundraisers to which all proceeds go back to the school.  They let us know how much was raised, how much each class will receive and what it will be spent on.  So far there's been drive-up take out dinners, movies on the green with all the fanfaire and goodies, a trike-a-thon (which Mia’s class won – Yay!), the Scholastic book orders (I loved those as a kid), a Christmas play and a Santa’s workshop for Christmas.  And her teacher is a wonderful woman.  She reminds me of my beloved Kindergarten teacher.  Just a lovely, patient and kind woman.  Mia and the other children love her so.

Her first school picture.  So sweet  :)

The thing that I can't get used to is the sand.  It's killin' me!  Can't even say how many pairs of socks she's gone through.  Bleach can't work miracls, after all.  But it is a way to guage what kind of day she's had.

A good day = tons of sand pouring from her shoes