The time of her life–Caroline’s preschool days

Caroline is such a lucky little girl these days. Just about the first words out of her mouth every morning when she comes to get her “mommy hug” from me are, “Is today a preschool day?” She tells everyone she meets that she “used to go to homeschool, but now I go to preschool!” (How do you GO to homeschool? – the point is, you’re already there!) A group of moms from our little playgroup set up a preschool co-op this fall and take turns hosting the 10-11 kiddos on Wednesday and Friday mornings. They make a craft, practice writing letters and numbers, read a story, discuss a topic (like fire safety or thankfulness), ect.  (Kimber, you would have LOVED this! You tried hard to set something like this up, but just didn’t have the right people in the right places!) She is SOOOO proud that she goes to preschool and is having the time of her life. I love the above picture taken on her first day. You can absolutely see her pride, nervousness, and just general excitement. (Thanks, Nikki!)

She almost didn’t get to go, because I initially turned down our invitation to be a part of it. It’s such a challenge to get the older four kids going on their schoolwork in the morning, and if I leave, even to shower, their work essentially stops. I said I just couldn’t see taking Caroline and picking her up right in the heart of the best school time twice a week, when we’re already taking 2 mornings (and sometimes whole days) off for library storytime and playgroup. Fortunately, I have awesome friends, as I might’ve mentioned before. Nikki picks her up and takes Caroline back to her house to play with Jack until about 2 or 2:30, when the others are at least mostly finished for the day. On the days Nikki can’t, Hilarie steps in to get her, and even brings her home to my house!!! See? – awesome! 

Caroline takes her preschool soooo seriously. She came bursting in the front door when Hilarie dropped her off on Wednesday, yelling for Katherine, to tell her she learned the letter “k". Now, she’s known the letter “k” for forever, since it begins Katherine’s name, but now that preschool covered it, she KNOWS it! It was big news…

That’s Part 1 of the fabulous fall Caroline’s had. Part 2 is the fact that she finally has a best friend of her very own. Mind you, she’s been surrounded by people since birth. Her siblings and their friends have been a constant presence, and she even made a friend or two in ballet last year. But none have ever achieved the all-important title of “best friend.” Until now. Caroline and Allie (Cook) pretty much decided at once that they were best friends, and they’ve only gotten more and more determined about it. I love it! They are so cute together. They hold hands, hug, and tell everyone (and I DO mean everyone!) that they’re best friends. If someone makes eye contact for too long, or foolishly offers a hint of a smile, Caroline will burst out with something like this, speaking super-quickly: “Allie’s my best friend-and she’s like a month older than me but I’m bigger and she goes to preschool and I love her!” She told the produce manager in Kroger all about Allie last week. Allie’s the oldest in her family, so ‘best friends’ may be a new concept for her, but Caroline has been waiting seemingly forever while watching her siblings with their best friends. Caroline is SUCH a friendly little soul. Allie and Caroline go to playgroup, library storytime, and now preschool together. It’s just added a richness to Caroline’s life that I didn’t know was missing. Everything fun we do, she can’t wait to tell Allie all about it. Fortunately, her family plans to stay in the area for a long time, since it would be a pure tragedy if Allie moved away.

The preschool took a little field trip to the Ridgeland fire station, and I obviously let all my kids go, and they had a really good time. The tour was interesting, and the firefighters were very good with the kids. Daniel surprised me by showing a lot of interest and asking a bunch of intelligent questions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

  Here’s Caroline with the two other girls her age: Allie (on the left), and Andie.