Back to School

Anabella and Daniel have been back to school for a few weeks now- running behind on my blogging, as usual!

I'm super excited about their new Christian preschool, Little Lambs.

LOVE it!

Look at these cute little postcards that came in the mail from their teachers the week before school started:

Anabella carried hers around so much that it ended up with a small tear (nothing a little Scotch tape couldn't fix). She even tried to take it to bed with her one night, though agreed to leaving it on her dresser.

I really liked the way Little Lambs did their orientation even if it did mean Chip had to take off work on what was only his second day with the kids back in the building. They did a morning orientation from 10-11:30am for both parents and students. It allowed parents and kids the opportunity to get to know one another a little before "real" school started the next day.

And, while the school was new for them this year, they had the benefit of having attended a camp there a few weeks ago, so they at least recognized some faces. Small world that it is, two former students from Daytime Playtime (one from Anabella's class last year and one from their class the year before) are now at the their new school and one is in each of their classrooms. Dan also had a friend from camp who is in his class as well. They both met two more kids at the pool this summer, but they're in another class.

Check out the "camo" backpacks they chose for this year!

Ready for orientation

Do you like the shirt Dan picked for his first day?
It's one of his favorites. Chip & I bought it for Ryan nine years ago when we were honeymooning in Hawaii! Who knew we'd have a size 4 of our own wearing it one day. Also take note of the "cool" way he is wearing his backpack.

The first part of the morning was meet & greet which gave the kids a chance to meet some friends and get comfortable in the classroom. Here's Anabella at one of the "centers" with her friend from Daytime Playtime.

Here's Dan building Legos with his friend from summer camp.

The director came in to go over some information with parents, so the teachers had an activity for the kids at the table.

Dan was pretty pleased with this "bridge" on the playground.

I originally started D and A in preschool when they were 2.5 years old as a way for them to get some socialization with other kids. Since I found (and heard) from the teachers that they still tended to do everything together, I put them in separate classes last year at DTPT. That worked well because while they were in different classes, they still saw each other for group activities and outside on the playground. Plus, since they were only there 3 mornings a week, they still had plenty of time together too.

Little Lambs is not as large a preschool as DTPT and doesn't have as many classes. So, in order to put D and A in separate classes this year meant they'd have to go on separate days.  The benefit to this is that it gives me separate time with them both. LOVE having that this last year before they go to K next year.

I wasn't sure how the kids would do with it (one going while the other stays with Mommy), but they've adjusted fine. In fact, Anabella actually got upset the day Dan went last week and said she wanted to go to school too. Talk about a hurt Mommy. Even though I know it was more for "effect" than anything, it was pretty amusing.

On the days she attends when Dan doesn't, she always plants him a big ol' kiss upon leaving. "Bye, Dan," she says, as if I'm chopped liver. 

Here they are on their first "real" day of school:

The teachers asked that the students bring in a special "stuffed someone" for the first day. They both knew just who to bring (though Anabella would have probably rather taken Shilee- I'm glad they said "stuffed" and not just "special someone"). 

New bear doesn't have much "stuffing" left, but he was sure happy to go.

Anabella brought this home on the first day.

I love this little calendar that comes in the newsletter each month letting me know what's going on each day in their classroom. Each day one student gets to be the "helping hand," which means they get to help the teacher and also bring in an item from home to show & share with the class.  Stay tuned for more on that in a future post.

This is the raccoon they made to go along with the book The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn, which we just happened to have in our collection (and had also read prior to school). I love knowing what they're learning (and reading) so I can follow up at home (you'd think I'm a teacher myself or something). DTPT had a calendar but it just included weekly themes, not as detailed. I like to know details! 

Leave it to Anabella to "personalize" her raccoon. I especially like the whiskers around the nose.

Stay tuned for more posts about what they're learning in preschool soon. I hear there's "homework" this year......woohoo!