Getting Ready For Preschool

Last week, I had my first parent/teacher conference for Arabella as she is starting preschool this week. Since her school is close to our house, I decided to walk since it was such a perfect evening. I remember thinking that how is it that 3 years have already flown by and that she is old enough to be starting preschool. It is taking me by surprise and she seems to be taking going to school better than me. At the meeting, we were told what to do and what not to do, what they needed for school, how to dress them and that everything should be labeled...it was a lot of information and was a tad bit overwhelming to me since I am an emotional basket case about this! Before we left for the evening, the teachers read the parents a story called The Kissing Hand. It is a very touching story about a young raccoon who is going off to school for the first time and he and he mother start a tradition for when he is feeling sad and misses her. It brought tears to my eyes and now I need to come up with something to do with Arabella. If you don't know the story, you should and I will be getting a copy of it for our house.

The next day, Arabella was scheduled for a 15 minute, 1-on-1, meet and greet with her teachers. She was very excited to go to school and meet them. At first she was a little shy, but warmed up quickly. At this point, she turned right to me and said "You can go now, Mommy"...I couldn't help it and I started crying, I had to leave the classroom. I didn't think it would be that easy for her. I guess I/we had done a good job raising her to be confident and secure and have prepared her for this day. When we got home from her meet and greet, she had mail waiting for her from Grammie. She was very excited to open it! It was a surprise for her and it was a great book about starting preschool, called The Night Before Preschool. We read it immediately and she loved it. I think it helped her prepare for school even more.



Thanks Grammie for surprising us and for helping US to prepare for the big day! Stay tuned on how we make out on the big day this week!