Dear Lexi,
Last week, you began your full-time school journey. On Wednesday, we went for a one-hour ‘meet the teacher’ sessions, where we got to see your new cubby, explore your new classroom, play at some of thestations set up, and get to chat with your teachers a little bit. We already knew your teachers of course, because they were Mercedes’ teachers last year. Which I am super-thankful for, since they are a FABULOUS team. They are caring and thoughtful and encouraging and place a very high emphasis on fostering independence and outdoor education (making full use of the outdoor classroom, the forests and trails surrounding the school, etc.) You will have an absolute blast with them – Mercedes did, and I know that you will be the same. You were nervous to go for that one hour meeting, but by the end of it you didn’t want to leave! I was happy but still not very optimistic that your first days would be tearless (and I was right).
On Thursday morning, I had to drop you off to the Before School program, which unfortunately was not agreeable to you. Mercedes is also in the program of course, but being two years older she is in a different classroom during Kids Club. The kindergarten students are placed in the actual kindergarten classrooms (your Kids Club class is actually IN your daytime class, which hopefully makes the daily transition a little easier in the long run). However, on Thursday and Friday last week, she had to come and spend time with you in your class to help ease you in (which of course, she relished – she loves beinga helpful big sister). On Thursday (the first day) you came home and said you cried all day and that you were “ZERO excited” to go back the next day, which broke our hearts a bit of course. I know how rough it is to be in a new place, with new teachers, a new routine, new peers… it would be daunting for me, let alone a four year old! But by the end of Day Two, you came home proudly exclaiming that you “had a gooder day today!” and that you had made a new friend and that now you LOVE school.
This morning’s drop-off was still a little tearful, although thankfully I was able to distract you from the idea of Mercedes joining your before-school class again. I have to keep reminding myself that for the entire past year and a half of daycare, you have always been dropped off WITH Holden (likewise, Holden cried for you last week, since he is used to sibling back up as well). It is a big adjustment to be left alone in a new class, on top of all of the other adjustments you are trying to make.
So while it makes me sad, it also warms my heart a bit to see how much you all love each other. I know you fight like cats and dogs sometimes, but fundamentally, I think that the three of you absolutely worship each other. So much so, that we’ve agreed that you and Mercedes can have ‘sleepovers’ in her bed each Friday and Saturday night (no school nights!) – something that you especially seem to love. I am so thankful that you all have each other to lean on.
I am curious to see how your second week of school unfolds, but however long the transition takes, I know that you will thrive in kindergarten, just like Mercedes did. I can’t wait to see it all happen.
Love,
Mama
Monday 14 September 2015
Mercedes - Grade 1
Dear Mercedes,
Last week marked your first week of Grade 1. We had a rough start to your first day of school – this year, the administration made everyone from Grade 1 and up meet in the yard before the first bell, where we were to look for the right Grade and then find your name on a list to learn who your teacher was. I understand that for many reasons this may have been the best method (there are changes in enrollment right up until the last minute, etc.), but it sure was chaotic. For a sensitive kid like you (and for me too!) it was downright overwhelming. You surprised me with how UN-anxious you were leading up to the start of school though. I remember last year you crying at night for a good week prior to SK starting, and that was when you knew the classroom and the routine and that all of your friends would be with you! This year, we had no idea who your teacher was, where your classroom was, and whether or not your best friends would be with you (sadly, your two best friends are NOT). But you took the uncertainty in stride and while you admitted that you were a ‘bit nervous’ prior to the start of school, not once did you cry or complain. Until of course, the chaos in the schoolyard.
However you persevered, and as you told me later you were totally fine once you walked through those doors. You do have a few friends in your class, and you actually have TWO teachers, both of whom you seem to enjoy. You are very proud of the fact that you have a real desk now, and that there are no ‘toys’ left in the classroom (“just math toys”), and that you get to walk all the way down the hallway by YOURSELF to go to the bathroom (ah the joys of freedom at the age of six!). You love being on the third floor of the school, and after only four days have already seemed to fall into a great groove. This is not surprising to me – you have a true, unbridled love for school and all things learning (doing workbooks on your own time that you force me to buy for you). You are 100% my daughter. I remember Auntie Kimmy and I begging Bubie to do gifted tests on us for fun on the weekends.
It is thrilling to me to see how engaged and involved you are in your school days – how much fun it all is to you, how you carefully observe everything around you and import it into your daily play with your brother and sister. I have no doubt that this year will be a fantastic one for you – I can’t wait to see what you teach me next.
Love,
Mama
Last week marked your first week of Grade 1. We had a rough start to your first day of school – this year, the administration made everyone from Grade 1 and up meet in the yard before the first bell, where we were to look for the right Grade and then find your name on a list to learn who your teacher was. I understand that for many reasons this may have been the best method (there are changes in enrollment right up until the last minute, etc.), but it sure was chaotic. For a sensitive kid like you (and for me too!) it was downright overwhelming. You surprised me with how UN-anxious you were leading up to the start of school though. I remember last year you crying at night for a good week prior to SK starting, and that was when you knew the classroom and the routine and that all of your friends would be with you! This year, we had no idea who your teacher was, where your classroom was, and whether or not your best friends would be with you (sadly, your two best friends are NOT). But you took the uncertainty in stride and while you admitted that you were a ‘bit nervous’ prior to the start of school, not once did you cry or complain. Until of course, the chaos in the schoolyard.
However you persevered, and as you told me later you were totally fine once you walked through those doors. You do have a few friends in your class, and you actually have TWO teachers, both of whom you seem to enjoy. You are very proud of the fact that you have a real desk now, and that there are no ‘toys’ left in the classroom (“just math toys”), and that you get to walk all the way down the hallway by YOURSELF to go to the bathroom (ah the joys of freedom at the age of six!). You love being on the third floor of the school, and after only four days have already seemed to fall into a great groove. This is not surprising to me – you have a true, unbridled love for school and all things learning (doing workbooks on your own time that you force me to buy for you). You are 100% my daughter. I remember Auntie Kimmy and I begging Bubie to do gifted tests on us for fun on the weekends.
It is thrilling to me to see how engaged and involved you are in your school days – how much fun it all is to you, how you carefully observe everything around you and import it into your daily play with your brother and sister. I have no doubt that this year will be a fantastic one for you – I can’t wait to see what you teach me next.
Love,
Mama
Holden - Senior Preschool
Dear Holden,
You are now officially in the Senior Preschool room! This is the final stop in your daycare journey before you begin Junior Kindergarten next year in the Fall of 2016. It is hard for me to imagine that at this point – the idea of watching you walk through those doors, with your backpack and packed lunch, is a bit panic-inducing. I KNOW you will be fine, as the evidence of your sisters (not to mention countless of other wee ones) before you suggests. But it’s still hard to picture, especially knowing that thanks to your Christmas-Eve arrival you will literally be the very youngest in your class at not even four years old.
But truthfully, you astound me every day with how quickly you are growing and learning and changing before our very eyes. Just this week you lost the ‘mokorcycle’ mispronunciation and say ‘motorcycle’ properly. You produce these elaborate sentences and have such a vivid imagination – ‘reading’ stories and making up ghosts and creatures and the ever-present “Mommy, Lexi hurted me. Lexi hitted my arm!” stories. You have gotten your first haircut (although it wasn’t much of a haircut; I just couldn’t stand to cut off all of your beautiful baby curls), and we are working (slowly!) on potty training. We don’t want to rush you, but we are trying to push the concept as much as possible without traumatizing you (see the afore-mentioned ‘youngest kid in kindergarten’ thing). We have no more baby gates in the house, we’ve just moved your carseat forward facing, and you like walking up and down the stairs on your own. You are still in a crib, but that will come to an end within the next few months (definitely before your third birthday). You love counting and picking out shapes and singing songs and watching movies that are too mature for you.
You still absolutely LOVE trucks and cars and motorcycles and airplanes and trains and helicopters and garbage trucks (i.e. anything that moves), and you adore Lego more than just about any other toy. You worship your sisters, especially Mercedes (likely just because she is significantly older and more mature – Lexi is more like your trouble-making-partner-in-crime).
It is a privilege and an honour to watch you grow older – it’s bittersweet, knowing you are the very last to pass through all of these phases, but we are starting to feel the freedom and flexibility again – we can go places as a family much more easily, you are much more cooperative, and you love being at Bubie and Zaidie’s house for visits or sleepovers. It is hard to believe that you began at Learning Jungle in the infant room (as the only infant!) and that this only occurred a year and a half ago. There has been such a drastic change in you over this time period, but the fundamentals of your personality have remained – you are still sweet and smiley and charming and loveable and snuggly and funny (we call you Class Clown, given how frequently you like trying to make the rest of us laugh). Please don’t change too much, because those qualities are ones I plan to savour forever.
Love,
Mama
You are now officially in the Senior Preschool room! This is the final stop in your daycare journey before you begin Junior Kindergarten next year in the Fall of 2016. It is hard for me to imagine that at this point – the idea of watching you walk through those doors, with your backpack and packed lunch, is a bit panic-inducing. I KNOW you will be fine, as the evidence of your sisters (not to mention countless of other wee ones) before you suggests. But it’s still hard to picture, especially knowing that thanks to your Christmas-Eve arrival you will literally be the very youngest in your class at not even four years old.
But truthfully, you astound me every day with how quickly you are growing and learning and changing before our very eyes. Just this week you lost the ‘mokorcycle’ mispronunciation and say ‘motorcycle’ properly. You produce these elaborate sentences and have such a vivid imagination – ‘reading’ stories and making up ghosts and creatures and the ever-present “Mommy, Lexi hurted me. Lexi hitted my arm!” stories. You have gotten your first haircut (although it wasn’t much of a haircut; I just couldn’t stand to cut off all of your beautiful baby curls), and we are working (slowly!) on potty training. We don’t want to rush you, but we are trying to push the concept as much as possible without traumatizing you (see the afore-mentioned ‘youngest kid in kindergarten’ thing). We have no more baby gates in the house, we’ve just moved your carseat forward facing, and you like walking up and down the stairs on your own. You are still in a crib, but that will come to an end within the next few months (definitely before your third birthday). You love counting and picking out shapes and singing songs and watching movies that are too mature for you.
You still absolutely LOVE trucks and cars and motorcycles and airplanes and trains and helicopters and garbage trucks (i.e. anything that moves), and you adore Lego more than just about any other toy. You worship your sisters, especially Mercedes (likely just because she is significantly older and more mature – Lexi is more like your trouble-making-partner-in-crime).
It is a privilege and an honour to watch you grow older – it’s bittersweet, knowing you are the very last to pass through all of these phases, but we are starting to feel the freedom and flexibility again – we can go places as a family much more easily, you are much more cooperative, and you love being at Bubie and Zaidie’s house for visits or sleepovers. It is hard to believe that you began at Learning Jungle in the infant room (as the only infant!) and that this only occurred a year and a half ago. There has been such a drastic change in you over this time period, but the fundamentals of your personality have remained – you are still sweet and smiley and charming and loveable and snuggly and funny (we call you Class Clown, given how frequently you like trying to make the rest of us laugh). Please don’t change too much, because those qualities are ones I plan to savour forever.
Love,
Mama
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