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Tonight my middle graduated from preschool, in a ceremony that probably couldn’t have differed more from her older sister’s experience if they’d been consciously trying. This, of course, is mostly because her older sister went to a six-student in-home preschool that was perfect for her. I fell into it through a friend and former colleague of mine; in fact, my daughter took her son’s spot, since her family moved to Wisconsin over the summer. (It was actually a two-year preschool, but my oldest was only there for the second year.) It was very academic, which was exactly what my November-birthday, impressive attention-span oldest needed.
Flash forward two or three years and that option wasn’t available anymore, the teacher being busy having a third child and all. I was sad about that (not the child, you understand)–I probably would have done a two-year preschool just to keep that teacher–but my friend Andrea recommended I look into a local high school preschool program, where the high school students are the under-teachers as part of a class taught by the head teacher. I went with that, and while my middle didn’t always love it, it did exactly what I wanted it to do. I wasn’t worried about academics for my doesn’t-love-crowds-or-strangers August birthday middle. I wanted her to get used to being away from Mommy, taking direction from someone else, and being part of a group. That happened, and the fact that she didn’t always love it wasn’t at all a reflection on the program. She just would have preferred to stay home.
In any case, back to preschool graduation–tonight was loud and crowded, and since my hubby couldn’t make it, my awesome neighbors came and helped with the boy and kept my sanity (mostly) intact. That saved me. But my middle seemed to have fun, and my oldest loved it–she loves people–and so we celebrated a (small) milestone in our family’s life.
(And then, when we got home, my son sat on the potty before his bath–he LOVES doing this–and for the first time actually DID SOMETHING IN IT! I’m not sure he knows how he managed it, but we take milestones of that kind any way we can get them. YAY!)