Last August, after Ava turned 2, I decided to put her in a Mother’s Morning Out program at a school called Bright Beginnings. It was on Friday’s from 9:30 – 12:30. It is one of only a few accredited Christian Pre-Schools in Georgia, but it only goes through Kindergarten. I knew I wanted her to stay through Kindergarten and the enrollment process is a nightmare for new students. People camp outside the school starting at like 3 am on enrollment day to get their kids in there. The sooner I got her in the better. I thought 1 day a week would be good for her to interact with other kids and get a little used to being away from me (with someone other than family). Plus, at that point, I still hadn’t met that many people with kids her age, so she needed that interaction.
I was a nervous wreck that first day I had to drop her off. It was so scary dropping her off with people I didn’t know or hadn’t spent time with. Of course I trusted the school and the teachers, but the thought of leaving her was what jumbled my nerves. The first day she did great – she went right in and sat down at the table with the other kids and started coloring. I couldn’t believe it was that easy!!! When I picked her up, one of her teachers, Miss Haley, told me her son (also in the class) was so taken with Ava. He followed her around and tried to hold her hand and kiss her frequently - the whole time!! Miss Haley said Ava took to that pretty well, but wasn’t too sure about it. That went on for pretty much the whole year!! Her son Jackson is such a doll!! Well, after week three, it wasn’t so easy. I had to carry her all the way in and the teachers had to pry her away from me while she was crying. Boy was that hard. It became much easier after the teachers assured me she was fine as soon as I left! The year went on and she progressed from me having to carry her in to her walking “by herself”- as she says, carrying her own backpack. She grew to really love her class and everyone in it. Her favorite part was picking something out of the treasure box each time I picked her up. She particularly adored her teachers and prayed for them and her classmates every night. I loved all the artwork she created throughout the year and have much of it in places in the house! They even spent time learning how to play around on the computer during each class!!
The last day, the moms attended and ate with all of the kiddies and they put on a little show for us and sang three songs for us they sang all year! I have included some of the video below which is absolutely precious. They are singing “Jesus loves me” and signing while they are singing.
Next year baby girl will be going only 1 day a week again and Miss Debbie will be one of her teachers for the second year. She could go three days a week, but since I don’t work, and I can’t get these years back, I can’t bear to part with her three mornings a week! I just love spending time with her!!! She is pure joy! She also now has quite a few girls and boys she plays with during the week. When she turns 4, she’ll do a 3 or 4 day a week Pre-K, then at age 5, she’ll do a 4 day Kindergarten. Time flies way too fast!
The picture up top is on her last day, the one on the bottom is with her two teachers and the other bottom one is the very first day of school - can you see how she changed over the school year?
Lastly is her precious video of "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and "Jesus Loves Me". (still working on trying to upload it - it's not working!)
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