First Day of School

Yeah, technically it's still daycare but she will be there all year and it is more academic and structured ( and less play and fewer art projects and fewer performances and fun activities... sniff). I would be happy if all they did was talk to her all day and let her play, play, play. Play in the sand and water table, play with Play Dough, play with dinosaurs and math manipulatives, play on the playground and do art and cooking and sing. That's all I want for my pumpkin. Learning the ABCs? Writing her name? At two? I am not a fan. I can do that stuff with her on my own and at the pace that I feel is developmentally and Naomi-appropriate. She's so smart I predict she is going to pick it all up and be on grade level when she enters Kindergarten. I wish she could just have fun until then. Keeping my fingers crossed that she finds what they teach her fun.

I dropped her off at 7am. She was one of the first to arrive and the last to be picked up at 5:55. They are open til 6pm but when I got there they had the lights off and their purses slung over their shoulders and were annoyed with me for arriving at that time. I think they should be playing with her and engaging with her until 6pm. They never would have done that at the old place and even though they also closed at 6, she was never the last to be picked up. They better get used to the fact that she won't be picked up til 6 two or three days a week. I'm paying til 6pm and you need to have the lights on and be attending to my child and get yourself ready to go after she walks out the door. I can't imagine what my principal would say to me if I had the lights off at 3:25 with my purse slung over my shoulder waiting for the kids to hurry up and leave my classroom. It was truly appauling. Not a good first day impression at all. But, she is right down the hall and I was able to peek in on her during my lunch time. She was sitting at her little table eating the little lunch I packed her like a big girl. I wanted to cry. She looked so sweet there, I just wanted to scoop her up and take her home. Man, I love that little girl!!!

Here are some pics from the first day of school.. taken when we got home. Getting my school stuff together and two lunches and two people dressed and her sippy cup of rice milk and her breakfast and my coffee and my water bottle and her Pull Ups and wipes and change of clothes and stuffed doggie were enough to worry about!! There is no way I could have also factored in a morning photo and still gotten to work at 7am. Getting both of us out the door is really, really challenging!!!


And saying, "hi" to all the neighborhood doggies. Of course.