Collin's First Day of Preschool

On Monday, Collin went to his first day of preschool.

And this isn't a twice a week, 2 hours a day kind of place. We're talking EVERY day from 12:15pm- 3:15pm. He may as well be doing 1/2 day Kindergarten! 

I really would have liked him to go to a someone's house for preschool, a couple times a week, but no one out here does that! It's so weird. There really aren't very many options for preschool.

So he is going to Casa Montessori, which is just like two blocks away from our house. 

I'll admit, when I heard {Montessori}, my traditional teaching background did cringe. But I have to say, I was blown away- impressed at the parent orientation meeting. His teacher, Ms. Teresa, is the director, and she's been doing this for 21 years. She is a really cute, spunky looking lady that totally has it all together and you can tell how much she loves her job. 

When they were showing us a slide show presentation of their methods and activities, I decided I could probably learn a few things here. For example, she mentioned they do a unit on land forms, and the kids will know all the differences between islands, peninsulas, straits, isthmus', archipelagos, and atolls. A mom quipped, "Could you teach US what those are?!"

They have a big playground area with lots of different toys and a huge sandbox. They do get one on one instructional time every day. They do crafts and have story time. Because it's Montessori, they decide which educational activities they want to spend time on, but every center looked very organized and more like learning, than just playing. All I could think during the presentation was, "Collin is going to LOVE this."

And so far, I've been dead right.

He got to go check it out, the Friday before school started, at an open house. He did NOT want to leave. He begged to go to preschool all weekend. When Monday afternoon finally came and I told him it was time to take his picture because he was leaving to go to preschool, he ran to the wall and did a {happy dance}. 

Then I ushered him out to the front door, because, well, that's just {the place} for first day of school pictures. Right, Mom?! :)

Oh, can't contain the excitement!

He continued the happy dance, so I had to encourage it for some video. I hate when I forget, and turn the camera! Sorry!!

(To pause my blog music, the tool bar at the bottom of the screen has all the buttons. It's not on the bottom of my blog, it will always be at the bottom of the screen, if that makes sense.)

The sign doesn't make it look like much, but it's a pretty cool place!

These next two pictures are from the open house.

Weston does about as good with "sun in the eyes" pictures as his daddy. :)

We are doing a carpool with two other girls in our neighborhood, so the rest of this week, he's been picked up and dropped every afternoon. With Weston taking his nap then, that leaves me with about 2 1/2 hours to myself every day!!!!! There could not be enough exclamation points after that sentence!! I start to get the "guilty Mom" conscience when I read on blogs and Facebook about all the Mom's shedding tears about their kids going to school. Heck, if Weston hadn't been in my arms after dropping Collin off on his first day, I might have done a heel click in the parking lot. This is the best thing ever.

Granted, if he had been crying or sad or repeatedly not wanting to go, THEN I probably would not feel good about any of this. But these are the hours every day that I usually dread. Weston is sleeping, Collin is bored, and I'm pulling my hair out because I can't get anything done with a whining, needy, nothing- makes- me -happy 3 year old. He is the child that needs food and entertainment 24/7.

This is a win- win- win. 

Blessings be upon Casa Montessori. :)