In Preparation for Preschool...

I made the final decision late last spring to enroll the girls in preschool this fall.  This obviously marks a big change in our daily routine, and we’ve been working to prepare ourselves for quite a while.

I took the girls for a quick visit to the school back in May.  It just happened to be “closing day”, meaning the students had already celebrated their last day, and the teachers were there, putting things away for the summer.  It was a great introduction.  The girls had the opportunity to meet their teachers for a couple of minutes, get a visual of their classroom, and play a bit on some of the indoor equipment.  We’ve talked about it all summer, how much fun we had, and how excited we are to see Mrs. E again.  The girls know where their school is, and we’ve waved to it with every trip downtown.

A couple of weeks ago, I started thinking about the girls’ school wardrobe.  I hadn’t originally thought I’d need to buy anything new for them…but then we had that experience at the bouncy house, where the little girl asked me, “Why do they have the same clothes?”  I bought them each a couple of new shirts – non-matching – just to make sure they could be dressed differently every day, at least until they get to know their teachers and classmates a little better.

I also bought the girls a new book, “The Kissing Hand”.  We heard it for the first time last summer at story hour at the bookstore, and I fell in love with the story.  It’s about a little raccoon who is starting school.  His mother kisses the palm of his hand, and tells him if he feels lonely, he can press his hand to his face to feel his mother’s love.  On one hand I hated to introduce the idea to the girls that they might feel lonely at school, but I just couldn’t stop thinking about what a sweet message it is.  The girls LOVE the book!  I gave it to them last week, and they’ve requested it multiple times, every day.

The girls and I had been shopping for backpacks, but we were unable to find ones that were their size.  (Every one we saw looked like a tent pack in comparison to my babies!)  We ordered backpacks online a couple of weeks ago.  Regretfully, they’re still not here.  I have my fingers and toes crossed that they’ll be here today (they were due here this past Friday, per the customer service person).  I am trying not to think too much about this one, as it feels like a huge Mom Fail…but if their backpacks aren’t in today, I have cute little Dr. Seuss bags they can carry.  I think they’ll be fine with those in the interim.

On Wednesday, the girls each got a funny-shaped letter in the mail.  They opened it to find a puzzle.  They immediately got to work to piece together a special welcome message from their teacher.  They were overjoyed!

And finally, we attended the Open House at the girls’ preschool on Thursday.  They had SO much fun!  They got to meet a few of their classmates, reacquaint themselves with their teacher and thank her for the puzzle, and they got to PLAY.  Their favorite station was the sensory table, with two big bins of rice with cups and spoons for scooping and dumping.

We’ve done all we can do in the way of preparation, and the girls are very excited to start school.  Baby A asked this morning, “Is today the day after Monday?”  And they’ve been playing “school” with their baby dolls, too.

I’m so thankful the girls are looking forward to their big day!