First Day of Preschool 2

Oh my gosh my blog hates me. It's been so neglected this summer and I have so much to catch up on! Now that all three kids are back in school and our "in-school" schedules are firming up, I hope to have a little more time to things I like to do.

Aiden and I started talking about him going back to school a few weeks back and at that point, he wanted nothing to do with it. He words exactly, "No mommy! I don't want school! I stay home with mommy!" Ugh.

Then we went to meet the teacher. He has the same lovely teacher and aide as he did last year (from April to June), but his classroom is now in the new elementary school and is a lot bigger, has even more center areas, more toys/books, and overall just AWESOME. By the time we made it to the car, he was counting the days until school started.

As Aiden headed off to play with all the kids, I scoped the room. I was nervous because I knew the room was going to be a lot bigger, with windows, and no carpeting. I spoke with his teacher last year about making the new classroom a good listening environment for Aiden, and I have to give her a big kudos as she did a wonderful job making it as acoustically appropriate as possible. Such as:

• Huge area rugs throughout. Now it's not completely covered, but each center area has it's own big rug.
• Tennis balls on the chair/table legs.
• Walls very well covered with bulletin boards, posters, etc.
• The room is broken up into small centers/sections with tall bookcases, shelves, etc as dividers. 
• Soundfield all set up and ready to go
• Classroom is at the end of a hall that is not busy and the outside noise is very minimal since the room is on the opposite side of the building as the playground.

The only thing that didn't meet my checklist was that the two windows did not have curtains. 

This year, Aiden is going back to our district's special education preschool. There are eight or nine kids in his class and four of them are typical peers. He attends from 8:30 to 11:00 five days a week, and it is beyond perfect! This way we are able to fit in AVT, OT, and of course, MT (mommy therapy). I'm not ready to give him up all day and I absolutely love this schedule!

So without further ado, my four year old PRESCHOOLER, who LOVES going to school, knows all his classmates names already, and tells me about his day without me having to pull it out of him!

"Hurry mom! Where's my bus?"

"Mom! I HEAR the bus! It's coming!"

Oh my gosh I'm so excited!

Such a big boy!

Dear Blog,

I promise I have not abandoned you. You have been on my mind so much this summer, but when the kids are out of school, I can't provide you the full attention you need. This summer has been extra hectic between (sometimes) up to five therapy appointments a week between two kids. But it hasn't been all work and no play, in fact, we've been having a TON of fun between all the appointments. 

It's been a summer of "firsts" (and some seconds & thirds), such as, 

Kailyn attending a sleepover camp for six days.

 Aiden feeding his first calf, and

 camping/swimming in the beautiful state of Wisconsin with grandma, (ok, definitely not a first, but it is the first time Aiden will remember it).

So much fun to catch up on, so many updates on all levels. 

So don't give up on me quite yet, there's much more to come.

In TEN days I will have a tenth grader, a sixth grader,

and a {talking quite a bit more, and so much crisper} preschooler.

Until then, I'm off to enjoy what's left of summer with my darlings!