All happy at home before we went to Preschool....
The tears started LONG before I even said goodbye.
I felt so bad. Look at this face.
This was when she said goodbye...before she started to run after me.
Friday was Charlotte's first day of preschool. Last year Sound Beginnings let the kids who turned 3 from the toddler group start going to Preschool on the days they were not in Toddler group. So I just assumed when Charlotte turned 3 that this would also happen. It didn't. Things are a bit different now. The teachers are all new and it's become quite an improved program. So we were confused at what was to happen. They said they wanted to see how Charlotte was at the end of the semester (in December) and then re-evaluate everything. They suggested Charlotte come on Fridays. We thought that was a great compromise. Starting in the Fall of 2009, she will start Preschool everyday. But for now it will just be on Fridays. So this Friday was the first day. She went from 8:30am-12 noon. Once I got out of the car and left Wade and Jack in there (it was a teacher only day on Friday for him) she knew something was up. As soon as she got into the classroom which is the same as her toddler group classroom, she was in tears. She didn't like what was going on but I was able to sit her down. And after a few minutes of crying she said goodbye. So I walked to the door and I turned to wave and she then stood up from the chair in tears and wailing and came running to me. It was so hard to leave her. I fought back tears and knew she was going to be okay. The teacher, Miss Natalie, was able to walk her back to the table and I waited a little and she turned around and ran right back to me. I had to leave. It was the best thing for her but I was worried the whole time. It was weird just having me and Jack around. I went to Walmart to pick up a few things after dropping Wade off at school. Then I went home, fed Jack, cleaned the house. I was bored! It was crazy. And then I went early to pick up Charlotte. I waited outside the classroom until she was just about done. And as soon as I went in, she was all smiles. Natalie said she only cried a few min. after I left and then was fine...had a few moments once in awhile but overall was okay. She said when they went to P.E., she walked without her walker the length of the gym twice...well Natalie said she was running. I thought that was great. Then they got together with the older Sound Beginnings preschool class (4 and 5 yr olds.) and when they walk together, each of them hold a ring that's connected by some sort of rope. Well, they put the rings on Charlotte's walker and they pulled Charlotte in her walker. She had her legs lifted when they did this. Apparently it was awesome. he he. But yeah, that was her first day. Hard at first but was overall a good day. I think she'll definitely look forward to going to preschool more and more.
So Charlotte has had the number and name signs on her door since her PIP advisor, Jennifer, came in October for her last visit. We just kept it up high on the door but never really did anything with Charlotte after the first couple of days. But we have shown her and spelled out her name in other ways and have counted numbers for her. There's a pillow on our couch that has 1-9 on it. And of course she knows about her name on the wall above her bed. Well, she noticed the signs on her door yesterday. Or I guess wanted them. So I took them down and we went and sat on the kitchen floor. She of course LOVES to take stickers off and on things so this was no different. She took all the letters and numbers and put them into one big pile. And then she tried to put them back on but the sticky stuff was gone. She first started with 9. I thought that was weird because she could have started with any other number. I got some tape to help keep it on but that wasn't working so I got some glue instead. She glued from 9 to 1 in the correct order. I was simply speechless. I couldn't believe it. She had to readjust the numbers because she put them too close together and there was a lot of space by the number 1 so she shifted the numbers to be closer to 1. Even though now there's a ton of space by 9. he he She knew what direction they went too. And then I was wondering what she'd do with the letters. She spelled out her name. She almost got the L but put glue on the wrong side but at first she had set it down in the right direction but there wasn't glue so she flipped it around. No joke. I didn't help her...well, I made sure I kept giving her enough glue and all I did was spread out the letter and numbers in the pile so it was easier for her to notice them. I tried to make sure they weren't even close in order to each other too. And Wade came home just in time for her to finish spelling her name. We are just so proud of her. We had some discouraging news last week but this just makes us even more determined in knowing that she will accomplish so much in her life. Speech included. Oh, I forgot to mention that before she peeled off all the stickers, I went through and said each letter and number to her. She of course said them back as best as she could. But when placing them on the signs she said "T" twice for each T she was holding and "Two" for the number 2. Yeah!
