Ellie Goes to School

Ellie just finished her 3rd week of school, so I thought it was time for a quick update on our little school girl.  I was very excited, a little nervous, and pretty emotional about this transition.  We have been incredibly fortunate for Ellie to be able to stay home with Miss Beth, one of my best friends since childhood, on the days that I work up until this point.  Coming up on turning a year a half (ahhh!) and turning two during this school year, we felt like it would be good for Ellie to interact and play with other children more, get out of the house, learn to follow classroom routines and direction of other adults, and have some new learning experiences (we certainly don't dive into fun finger painting projects at home hardly ever!) rather than be home all the time with one-on-one attention.  We found a wonderful program at a church that is right at the entrance of our neighborhood where she is going 3 days a week from 8:30-2:00.

We did everything I could think of to prepare for school.  We starting talking to her about it when we drove by in the car and cruised over a few times on our bikes (it only takes 2-3 minutes to bike there) for her to become familiar with it.  My mom and I got to take Ellie to an open house the week before she started, and she learned to say "school" that day.  She got to pick out a blanket to keep at school for nap time, and she slept with it the night before school (she has never slept with a blanket before this.)  We read Elmo Goes to School several times the weekend before and talked to Ellie about the things she (and Elmo!) would do at school.  We had her lunch box and backpack all packed and ready to go the night before, and her little outfit laid out on the bed for Daddy to get her dressed the next morning.  And we prayed, and prayed, and prayed!

Happy girl at Open House

Prepping for the 1st Day 

Starting a few months back, Ellie started having separation anxiety problems and totally losing control when I would drop her off at the church nursery.  One day I got paged to come get her because she was just a basket case (surely not my daughter!)  One day isn't so bad though compared to what a lot of my friends have gone through at some point or another with their kids, so I am thankful for that!  She typically calms down after a couple of minutes once we are out of sight and she becomes distracted by a loving nursery worker.  So with that said, I was expecting a bit of a fight when we dropped her off.  She loves to wear her backpack and start to walk in, but as she gets closer to the door, she refuses to go in and starts chanting, "No, no, no!"  Soooo, we inevitably have to scoop her up and take her in.  We try not to linger long at drop-off because that just makes it harder for everyone, so she usually goes to Ms. Candace, who does a great job turning her the other direction and distracting her immediately, and she's calm and happy before we are even done signing her in out in the hallway.  It's not bad at all-can't complain!

Overall, Ellie is doing great at school, and so far we have gotten all good reports!  Her teacher the first day commented, "She is verrry talkative, and very smart!"  Sounds like our girl :)  Ms. Candace has 2 year old daughter who she comments frequently reminds her so much of Ellie.  She seems to have a special touch and extra patience with the strong-willed, sassy side of Ellie, which I really appreciate!

Big girl ready for her 1st day of school!

The only negative so far is she won't take a nap at school.  Yes, our child is the only one in the class who refuses to fall asleep (no matter how tired she is!) because she doesn't want to miss a moment.  They say she will lay down on her mat with her bunny and blanket well, but she just rolls around, plays, and chatters!  I think eventually they let her get up once the other kids are asleep and she plays while the others nap....oh boy, oh boy!  It's not the worst thing in the world because she just naps as soon as she gets home.  Everyone says she will get the hang of it and get used to it eventually, but my hopes are not too high.  She is such a light sleeper and so easily stimulated, I could not fathom her sleeping in a room with anyone else in there.  I'm not surprised to say the least.

She is always very excited to see Mama or Dada when we come pick her up, and I love getting to read her daily sheets about her happenings.  She never fails to eat "all" her snack and usually "some" or "most" of her lunch.  That girl loves her snacks! :)  Ellie is also getting to do a lot of fun art projects, too!  We are thankful for her sweet teachers that take such good care of her and look forward to a great first year of school!

Pointing to the "trash" dumpster.  Trash is Ellie's favorite word, by a landslide!  She gets super excited about all things related to trash. One of her newest tricks is throwing things away in the trash to be a good helper :)