School Days!

Anderson is learning at such a fast rate that it is hard to keep up with it all, much less find the time to post it in a blog! But here will be my feeble attempt!Ha!!

When we decided that I would stay at home with Anderson, one of my concerns was that he NOT become a "mamma's boy". You know...you've seen them before. The kids that fall to pieces at the slightest separation from mom or are socially unable to play well with others...i.e. SHARE!!! Therefore, we decided not to shield Anderson from opportunities to be around other children as much as possible! We started by sending him to the church nursery on Sundays, which he handled like a champ with the exception of some normal separation anxiety recently. I also scheduled lots of play dates with friends that had children Anderson's age. Then we enrolled him in Mom's Morning Out. I won't go into detail on where he is due to paranoia and cyber-safety issues! However, we have been so pleased! He really loves going to school. It has been great for me too! :-)
We started him out in the Spring at 2 mornings a week and now he goes in 3 mornings a week. He has about 4 classmates and two wonderful teachers. Almost all of the teachers have children of their own in the preschool, so you know they are seasoned Mom's with a loving touch.

In the Spring and Summer it was really more about interacting with other children, but now that he is in the big boy one year old room it is like real school! We even got a supply list on the first day! I had to go and buy my little man a lunch box and backpack, crayons, a folder and other supplies! I almost died when I opened the list! He's only ONE!!! How in the world are we already to the point of needing a backpack?? I was skeptical at first, but boy have I been surprised at the things Anderson has learned lately!!


At school they have circle time where they have to sit on the rug while the teacher reads a story...I thought....hmmm... a room full of toddlers..sitting and listening...yeah...right! Well, she now has all five of them up to twenty minutes during story time. Their goal is to hit 30 minutes by the end of the semester! I didn't even think Anderson could understand the command "Sit Still!" She said the first week she kept having to pull him back on the carpet, but after that he understood and started sitting down right when it was time to. She said that even though he is the youngest in the class he usually sits still the longest. As much as he loves stories and books that really didn't surprise me.


They also have art class regularly. I love getting his masterpieces in his folder at the pick up time! We even framed one and hung it in our foyer. A couple of weeks ago they had "colors" week. Each day was a different color. The kids were asked to wear that days color clothing, they read books featuring that color, played with toys that were that color and of course made sweet artwork with that day's featured color.
This week they are working on Shapes!


They have a great routine of switching up gym playtime, outside playtime, music class, art class, story time, and many other activities. They usually do a couple of school wide activities a semester. When I pick him up they have a detailed list of what they did that day, how many diaper changes he had and what kind they were, what he ate and drank and his overall demeanor for the day. I really feel like he is so well taken care of!

There are some school-wide activities as well. At the end of August they had an "End of summer Luau". The parents sent snacks and the kids dressed accordingly. It was adorable!The older kids even have chapel and other activities like gymnastics that are more age appropriate, so we have a lot to look forward to! The four year old program is great! Both teachers are former kindergarten teachers, so they basically take the kids through that curriculum a year early. They even have events that involve the parents like Muffins with Mommy and Donuts with Daddy.

We Love school!