Education

Elly embarked on a new journey last week, the start of school. 

Reasons we decided to send Elly to preschool:

• more interaction with kids and adults
• time away from the house in a newborn free environment once baby brother arrives
• to help keep me somewhat sane once I have 2 precious darlings to care for

Those are all great reasons that totally make sense in my brain. But, when it came time to drop my baby girl off with virtual strangers, my emotional side took over, just as it always seems to, and I was a hot mess.

I’ve been prepping Elly for the start of school for weeks now, reading books about it and talking about what was going to happen there. Our independent girl walked right in and started to explore her new room without shedding a tear, I was so relieved! I can’t even imagine how much more of a wreck I would have been if she’d been crying. I think someone should have been prepping ME  during these past weeks.

When we picked her up a couple hours later she was playing happily on the playground. She hasn’t told me much about school other than that she had pretzels and goldfish for snack, ya know, the important stuff. She also mentioned she had to sit at the table, which was kind of funny because the teacher told us she really didn’t want to sit at the table and that we should work on that at home. Elly’s first ever homework assignment.

 Jamie and I received a note from the teachers saying that Crocs are not allowed. We found out a few days before the start of school that the kids have to wear closed toed shoes. Well, we’ve been playing in sandals, flip-flops, or bare feet all summer so the closest thing I had to closed toed shoes were her Crocs. Elly has wide feet so it’s hard to find shoes that fit! Since finding out about the policy I have ordered some new shoes for her and found a pair at Marshalls that fit those yummy chunky monkeys! The rule follower in me does not like that I’ve already disappointed the teacher so now I will go overboard buying school-appropriate shoes. They’ve probably nicknamed me ‘Emotional Waddling Croc Lady’ or something along those lines.

Hopefully Elly will continue to be less emotional than her Mama about going to school. Through my tears it was amazing to see how inquisitive and interested she was in her new classroom. Education is so important and even though this is only preschool we hope that it’s the beginning of Elly wanting to be a lifetime learner.