I must preface this by saying I am writing this post in TEARS. I never thought I would be so emotional! Mostly because I was always planning on teaching my daughter preschool at home… but I knew in my heart that wasn’t the path for us to take. So here I am now- typing this post while my nervous daughter is far away (aka down the street) with a room full of strangers. Oh dear- this post is turning out to be more like my therapy than a list of our first day of preschool activities!!

Last night our family did a few special things to get ready for the big day. We read the Night Before Preschool- a book about a boy that is SO nervous to go to preschool. We can relate to that!

My daughter drew a magnet for our fridge to use to hang her artwork.

We also watched some back to school movies on youtube.

My daughter wasn’t a fan of this one, but it totally got me choked up.

After a restless night, I tried waking up my daughter who had climbed into my bed sometime during the night. She is NOT a morning person so it was a bit of a struggle. I believe her first words this morning were “I do not want to go to school.” And of course I wanted to tell her that I didn’t want her to go either, but I played the part of the semi-strong mom.

I made her a special breakfast on our I am Special plate. Daddy, who usually goes to work before we are out of bed, stayed home this morning so he could have breakfast with us and walk with us to school. He also gave my daughter a special fathers blessing to help calm her nerves. Of course she was petrified of that, too. 🙂

We spent a couple minutes taking some pictures and then we were off to school. We are fortunate enough to attend an amazing school that is only five houses away. My daughter looked for potato bugs as we made the short walk.

Boo walked in to class, I believe she gave her sweet teacher one of her “I am scared to death” looks, we hung up her backpack, and she sat down and worked on a puzzle.

Daddy signing daughter into the roll book while Boo waves to the only other student she knows- a cute little girl from her primary class.

And my husband told me it was time to go. I think the hardest thing about leaving was knowing that I wouldn’t be there to comfort her if she was hurt or scared. I wouldn’t be there to help her is she had a question, or give her a hug if her heart was sad. She is my baby- my husband and I waited 7 years to adopt her, and letting her go is heartbreaking. Even though its only 2.5 hours twice a week.

UPDATE:
I was so excited to pick up my daughter after school. I was SO, SO thrilled to hear about how much she loved school. Boo can’t wait to go back! Her favorite part of school was circle time because they got to hear a story. There is also a boy from her soccer team in her class. It just makes my heart smile to know she loves it!
Boo came home from school to see that her stuffed animals threw her a little surprise party. They were happy to see her, too!

We spent the rest of the day going out to lunch with a friend, going to a Halloween store and looking at some of the scary displays (per my daughters request), a playdate with our cute little neighbor, a soccer game, and some tasty homemade pizza rolls and corn on the cob on our I am Special plate. What a day. So many emotions- just incredibly grateful that Boo had a fabulous day- it validates our decision to send her to preschool.
Happy Teaching!