Still trying to play catch-up and this is one I don’t want to ever forget! It was such a big milestone for our little girlie!
We had always known that we wanted to put Kylie in some type of preschool or Mother’s Day out at some point. I know this can be a controversial topic in some circles, but we are big proponents of this for a myriad of reasons. It is NOT for everyone or every child, but Jenna benefitted greatly from daycare/preschool and we felt that when the time was right, Kylie would too.
The problem is that in our little town, there’s not a ton of choices. There was on very popular Mother’s Day Out program which is admittedly very well known and very good. But y’all. People CAMP OUT to get their kids in there. You know, CAMP OUT like on Black Friday eve. And after much consideration, I just decided it wasn’t for me. I don’t do Black Friday for a reason and I figured I’d find something else less stressful than sleeping on a gym floor with a bunch of strangers (although there is something to be said for the special bonding that takes place when you do that).
So anyway, shortly after the Black Friday midnight madness enrollment there, I was talking to a friend from church who said her daughter and son went to a fabulous program at a large-ish local church in the area and they have enrollment ONLINE. What a novel idea!! So, I literally put Kylie on their waiting list in February from my iPhone. That’s how easy it was.
And I got a call in the summer that she was IN if we were still interested. Why yes we are. Monday and Wednesday 9-2 and there were only 5 other children in class with her. Monday and Wednesday was PERFECT because she was already doing speech therapy on Tuesday/Thursday. We went for tours, orientation etc. and were very impressed with the curriculum. But, we were also very concerned at how she would handle being left because we’d had her in daycare on Fridays just to get her some socialization (she loves being with other kids) and give Steve a break and she’d started really crying when he would leave her. So we had some valid concerns about this MDO. But we talked it up as “big girl school” and then the day finally arrived…September 4, right after Labor Day…I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves…
New shoes? Check. New lunch box? Check. New thermos? Check. Tiara? Um, OF COURSE.
Oh. My. Heart. Carrying her own lunchbox and pink monkey…
Getting’ ready to go in! She walked right in, went to the kitchen area and told Steve “BYE!”…I almost cried with relief! She has the best, sweetest teacher ever and she is learning so much! The curriculum is truly a two day curriculum so it’s not 5 days crammed into 2 or adjusted to a 2 day program. It’s written for 2 days a week and it’s so good.
Y’all, one evening, just a month after she started, I was getting her ready for bed. And, as always, she was talking up a storm. For you non-cleft readers, when I say “talking”, I mean, she was jabbering a mile a minute but I could understand none of it. She was fiddling around her room when I could make out “Eee, Eye, Eee, Eye, Oh” and I said, “OLD MCDONALD!!!” and she started singing it! And I could UNDERSTAND HER! It was the first time that she’d said something out of context that I could understand. That right there is priceless to me.
She loves singing the songs she learns there. She can do Old McDonald with a variety of animals that she thinks up herself, Jesus loves me, Itsy Bitsy Spider, the Alphabet song and a host of others. We are so proud of what she has learned. She certainly has come a long way!
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