School!

That's right. School. WHAT?!?! Ok, sure it's preschool. But still. It's a backpack and learning and out of the house. It's a big deal! Plus if we were in Ontario still he would be starting school this year.

 

So, this year, is a busy freaking year. We enrolled Austin in a preschool. We paid our deposits, yadda yadda. Then, we find out he was accepted to the preschool program through the school down the road. (I mean I can see it out my window it's that close) We didn't get the acceptance to the second school until months after enrolling him with the first school. I didn't even know he was being considered actually. The one hr of play weekly at the school I signed him up for last year put him in the consideration.

 

Now, the pre-school at the public school does accept kids who have delays. I guess in my "perfect kid" mind I didn't even think that he would be accepted because of course he has no delays. (Plus I didn't think he would get into one of the few "non delay" spots they have) However, they did an assesement and thought maybe he had a bit of a speech delay. To say I was in shock when I found out that news is an understatement. I did get over it though and we went for meetings with specialists. He does have a mild speech delay. The specialist told me that he understands everything but he just has a hard time translating that into words.

 

Now that we were in 2 schools I had to figure out what to do. The second school is covered, it's just like he is going to regular junior kindergarten. We only have to pay the school fees. The first school is a pretty hefty monthly bill. I wasn't sold on pulling him out of the first school though. Then, it was like fate intervened for us. His church pre-school ran Tues, Thurs, Friday mornings. We found out the second school ran mon, tues, thurs, fri afternoons. It was going to work out. I am still crazy worried about if it's going to be too much for Austin, but so far I've been up front with both schools, they both know he's enrolled in another, and so far he's been doing ok with adjusting.

 

Without further ado, I present to you the first day of school pics!!!

 

This day took me by surprise. I thought it was just a come in and see your class type of day. Then I got there and it was an actual first day. I had such a hard time NOT crying. The teachers read the kids the book "the Kissing Hand" to try and help them not be sad when their Moms aren't around. I get trying to help the kids, but when Austin gave my hand a kiss I almost started bawling right there. Not cool teachers. lol. We did stay for the whole 45 minutes (ok, so not a true first day since it was only 45 minutes, but I was still not prepared)

 

Having a blast coloring his picture of Chester from the story above.

 

And this picture was from his actual first day at the church pre-school. This was after class. I dropped him off and he just ran off and didn't say goodbye. Let's be honest now. I made it to the car and halfway out of the parking lot before I started crying because he was gone to school and didn't care to say goodbye. When I went to pick him up though he was so excited to see me so it made up for it.

 

These 2 pictures were just before leaving for his first day at the school down the street. I can't believe how big he is! Sigh.