Last Day of School

Katherine, Jack and I attended Katherine's last day of "school" today. She has been attending a toddler transition class since the fall and after a few weeks off, her last day was today. It is sort of a precursor to pre-school (funny, huh). During the fall I went with her both Tuesday and Wednesday. After the holiday break I was able to drop her off on Tuesdays and continued to attend with her on Wednesdays for music class, etc.

It really was a great way to introduce her to the concept of school and let her get used to being dropped off at school, confident that I would indeed actually pick her up at the end of class (a mere hour and a half later). She got to practice her sharing skills (or not), began to learn how to define limits for herself and her peers, and ultimately introduced her to conflict management on her level.

The class also helped develop life skills through actual use. When we arrived, the kids were encouraged to take off their coats and hang them up on the hooks on one wall of the room and take off their shoes and place them under their coat on the floor. The parents each signed up for a week to bring the snack (we were given loose guidelines, but all tried pretty hard to keep it healthy and natural if not organic). Before snack was served the kids had to stand in line at the sink to wash and dry their hands (with a little assistance).

When snack was served the kids all had to set their own place at the table (bowl, cup, spoon/fork, and napkin) and were encouraged to learn to serve themselves (it was generally served family style so they could spoon their own fruit out of a common bowl or use the tongs to get their own cheese or turkey out of a bowl being passed around). They were also charged with cleaning up after themselves (taking their bowls to another table, emptying the leftover food into a garbage bag, placing dirty napkins on a tray, and putting their dirty dishes into a dishpan full of soapy water).

She really got a lot out of that class! This fall she will move on to her first year of pre-school. I am excited for the new opportunity and look forward to watching her learn and grow. I thought I would be more hesitant about her going to pre-school three days a week, but I am impressed with the school she will be attending and think that two hours three days a week will be good for her. Afterall, due to when her birthday falls she will have to attend three years of pre-school before moving on to Kindergarten.

Now I have these first steps to look forward to with Jack as well!